	canada leaders fail to set pact on free  prime minister brian mulroney said he held frank discussions with the canadian province premiers on the pace of free  talks with the united states but the longstanding issue of provincial ratification remains to be settled speaking to reporters after nearly five hours of meetings with the premiers mulroney said further discussions would be held in june and september to discuss the role of the provinces in approving any new  deal but he maintained progress was being made in the sweeping talks with the unites states that got under nearly two years ago it appears reasonable progress is being made in the talks mulroney said alberta premier don getty agreed things are running pretty quickly now the talks launched by mulroney s progressive conservative government after concerns about protectionist sentiment in the u s are aimed reducing the remaining barriers between the world s largest trading partnership but the provinces are expected to play a major role in any new trading arrangement and some of the provincial leaders complained of a lack of progress on reaching a ratification formula it s my view that we should be thinking about these things right now along with the questions of the substance of the agreement commented ontario premier david peterson who has been highly critical of the talks in the past but newfoundland premier brian peckford said an agreement was more likely to emerge by consensus and there would be no need for a hard and fast formula peckford said it appears canada is prepared to make concessions to the united states on financial services in order to make inroads on other bargaining areas such as agriculture canadian published reports quoting government sources say the two countries are close to reaching a  deal and it will involve eliminating border tariffs and many non tariff barriers over the next to years a rough draft of the accord is expected to be presented to the premiers at the june meeting while the finished document is hoped to be presented to congress in october it s a very tight time frame ontario s peterson said last night but at this moment it is tough to say what will transpire reuter 
