MONTREAL – Ottawa’s decision to sign the revamped Trans Pacific Partnership agreement will make it harder for Canadian negotiators to defend this country’s workers and dairy industry in the ongoing renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, Teamsters Canada said Tuesday.

“The United States could use the TPP at the NAFTA negotiating table as a way of weakening the Canadian position on issues like dairy market access and labour standards,” the union’s spokesperson Christopher Monette told reporters.

Canada’s labour proposal at the NAFTA table, Teamsters Canada said, is “better” than the text agreed to under the TPP. The union is also concerned about increased pressure for access to Canada’s dairy markets.

As for dairy, Monette said the TPP deal will make it harder for Canadian officials to push back against American demands for access to Canada’s dairy markets.

U.S. NAFTA negotiators have demanded Canada eliminate its entire supply management system for eggs, dairy and poultry within a decade. Canadian officials have rejected that demand outright. Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay has called the demand a “non-starter.”

“Now, the Americans are going to turn around at the table, saying ‘you just signed away access for dairy market in the TPP, why is that not good enough for NAFTA,'” Monette said.

Teamsters Canada has 125,000 members in the transportation, production, hospitality and service industries, according to the union’s website. The union represents 35,000 workers in Canada’s dairy processing sector.

International Trade Minster François-Philipppe Champagne confirmed in a statement Tuesday the 11 remaining members of the Trans Pacific Partnership had reached a deal. A formal signature of the pact, renamed the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans Pacific Partnership, is expected in March.

Canadian, Mexican and American officials kicked off the sixth round of NAFTA renegotiation talks in Montreal Tuesday. The round is scheduled to run through to Jan. 29.