NAFTA Talks: US Proposes Higher Auto Wages

Canada likes the idea, Mexico maybe not so much

Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland speaks to the media following her trilateral briefing with U.S.Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Mexico's Secretary of Economy Ildefonso Guajardo Villarreal during the sixth round of NAFTA negotiations in Montreal on Jan. 29, 2018. The Canadian Press/Graham Hughes

WASHINGTON—Mexican workers’ wages are at the heart of a major proposal from the United States aimed at breaking through an impasse on automobiles and securing a new North American Free Trade Agreement.

The latest U.S. idea incorporates worker salaries into the formula for calculating which cars can avoid tariffs under the auto rules of origin, several sources in different countries say.