NAFTA countries agree on steps to ease trade

By Jim Forsyth

SAN ANTONIO, Texas July 16 (Reuters) - Trade negotiators from the United States, Canada and Mexico said on Friday they agreed to simplify or eliminate complex "rules of origin" affecting about $20 billion of cross-border trade in food, consumer products and industrial supplies.

"The complexities of these rules have sometimes impeded the full benefit of the North American Free Trade Agreement," U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick told reporters after ...