Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 9/12/18

Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland headed back to Canada after Tuesday's talks in Washington with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer appeared to yield no breakthrough on a new North American trade pact.

Freeland declined to comment on what sticking points are holding up a deal, Pro Trade's Sabrina Rodriguez reports, but she reaffirmed Canada is committed to getting it done. "We are going to work as hard as it is humanly possible," she said Tuesday. "We have over the past couple of weeks really understood the needs of both sides better. Both sides did a lot of thinking over the weekend."

After the U.S. and Mexico struck a preliminary two-way deal last month, negotiators are racing to bring Canada into the pact by the end of the month, but issues like access to Canada's dairy markets and a mechanism for resolving trade disputes are still outstanding. Freeland's time in Washington was short, as she's scheduled to attend the Canadian Liberal Party's caucus retreat today and Thursday.

The dairy dispute appears as complicated as ever. Canadian trade experts tell our Pro Trade colleagues that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is in a bind in his efforts to deal with the matter ahead of Oct. 1 elections in Quebec, the country's largest dairy-producing province. The French-Canadian province accounts for about half of Canada's farms and 37 percent of its milk output. And the issue actually cuts both ways in Quebec — some producers think it's time to end supply management, the Canadian experts tell Pro Trade.

Across the pond: Deputy trade ministers from the U.S. and United Kingdom met Tuesday in London, building toward formal trade talks that can commence after the U.K. exits the EU sometime around March 2019, Pro Trade's Megan Casella reports.

The two sides will regroup in Washington in November for their fifth meeting since Lighthizer and U.K. Secretary of State Liam Fox established a joint working group last year.