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Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland holds a roundtable consultation on NAFTA with labour stakeholders in Toronto on Tuesday, August 15, 2017.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press

Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland sat down with Canadian labour representatives in Toronto on Tuesday ahead of North American free-trade agreement negotiations in Washington to go over objectives, including raising work standards and balance of trade.

The round-table consultation came after a series of talks with organizations including CUPE, Unifor and the Canadian Labour Congress on the government's effort to modernize the 23-year-old trade agreement. Ms. Freeland opened the floor up to those attending as a means to bring up any last points or priorities before taking them to U.S. and Mexican counterparts.

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"I'm happy to talk with you about anything you want to talk about and I'm here to take notes," she said during a brief address.

After the meeting, much of the talk centred around raising labour standards and balancing tariff lines in the United States and Mexico to increase the competitiveness of Canadian manufacturing.

"A company importing cars from other parts of the world using poor labour standards doesn't have much of a penalty to come into North America to sell their cars whereas we have a very high wall to overcome in other markets," said Angelo DiCaro, Unifor's national research representative.

After the trade agreement, thousands of auto industry jobs were created in Mexico, where wages are lower. The labour section was added to the original agreement after Bill Clinton was elected president in 1992 and looked to change standards in all three countries to better match one another. But, as those at Tuesday's meeting expressed, they weren't enforced.

"We can have the best language in the world when it comes to labour standards but if there isn't a mechanism to uphold it, it's not worth as much," Mr. DiCaro said.

Ms. Freeland released a list of Canada's key objectives for NAFTA negotiations and among them was a new chapter for labour standards including new chapters for gender equality and Indigenous rights. Hassan Yussuff, president of the Canadian Labour Congress, is a part of Ms. Freeland's 13-member council formed to aid with negotiations. He said that if the agreement isn't fair for Canada, they won't sign.

"Of course we're not going to compete in an unfair process. They use lower labour standards and the fact that they don't enforce their laws as a way to attract investment and, more importantly, to say this is why you should invest in our country. So it's critical if we're going to be a part of this agreement, there should be a level playing field," Mr. Yussuff said.

Given the uncertainty in the White House and President Donald Trump's unpredictability, Mr. Yussuff said he was optimistic about the talks but expects them to be tough.

"We always have to be worried with this new administration. You never know what the President is going to tweet out at any given moment and how that can derail our negotiations, but I'm hoping with some good will and recognizing our long-standing relationship with the United States, they will see this in the same light," Mr. Yussuff said.

Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland says the labour and environment chapters of NAFTA could benefit from renegotiation. The U.S. officially served notice Thursday of its intention to renegotiate the trade agreement.

The Canadian Press

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