Can Nafta Be Saved? These Two Negotiators Are Trying.

WASHINGTON — One is a Rhodes scholar, a globe-trotting former journalist and, perhaps one day, a Canadian prime minister. The other is a veteran Republican lawyer who toiled as a congressional staff aide, represented the steel industry and has been cutting trade deals in Washington since the Reagan administration.

For more than a year, Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s foreign minister, and Robert E. Lighthizer, the United States trade representative, have been locked in intense negotiations to rewrite the North American Free Trade Agreement.