OTTAWA—Prime Minister Justin Trudeau downplayed pessimistic assessments of NAFTA negotiations amid uncertainty and confusion about exactly how President Donald Trump wants to rewrite the free trade pact to boost American industries and resolve international trade disputes.

At a news conference, Trudeau appeared to take a dig at the U.S. team’s failure to put forward specific demands.

The prime minister said, while he’s not concerned talks are stagnating, Canadian trade negotiators have done their “homework” and put “concrete proposals” on the table, and he is “very pleased to have a chance to discuss them with our counterparts from the other countries.”

Trudeau said Canada was “very serious” about advancing “progressive” labour and environmental standards and fair investor-state dispute mechanisms, while protecting its supply-managed agricultural sectors, such as dairy and poultry.

Canada, he said, is “moving forward in good faith in these negotiations.”

However, some observers, such as Unifor president Jerry Dias, head of Canada’s largest private sector union, have suggested, by not tabling precise demands, the U.S. is not acting with the same good faith.

Conservative MP Erin O'Toole says he doesn't see the Liberal government fighting enough for key industries under NAFTA. The latest round of talks to modernize the trade deal is under way in Ottawa. (The Canadian Press)

The Star has learned that the Mexican team has privately told people here that the U.S. negotiating team has also not provided specifics for Trump’s demand to revise labour standards that would apply evenly to all three NAFTA parties.

That is on top of a lack of clarity around precise American demands in at least five other specific areas: on increasing U.S. content in the auto sector, on “rules of origin” which apply more broadly to a range of manufactured goods, on how the U.S. wants to target Canada’s dairy sector, on how it wants to revise the state-to-state dispute-resolution process, and how it wants to revise the investor-state dispute settlement mechanism in the current deal.

Dias released an open letter today to the American team expressing concern that the Americans are expected to table labour standards that would “closely mirror the language adopted in the now defunct Trans-Pacific Partnership.”

Dias said that is not good enough and “does not provide the fundamental change in NAFTA that many in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico desire.”

“The TPP language only serves to enforce, not enhance, existing domestic labour standards, which are often insufficient, and in breach of international work standards. The TPP is entirely silent on issues of gender equality. It offers no reprieve for workers subjected to violence and intimidation for exercising their rights, and no penalties for governments and employers who breach those rights. It fails to effectively bar trade in goods made with forced or child labour.”

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Canada’s chief negotiator Steve Verheul had no comment at midday Monday on how talks were proceeding.

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