OTTAWA—The federal Liberal government met Donald Trump’s determination to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with a surprise opening bid: a willingness to come to the table.

Canada’s ambassador to the United States, David MacNaughton, told reporters Tuesday that Canada would approach negotiations on the decades-old trade deal with an “open mind.”

“I think any agreement can be improved on,” MacNaughton told reporters on a conference call from Washington, D.C.

“If they want to have a discussion about improving NAFTA, we’re ready to come to the table to try and put before the new administration anything that will benefit both Canada and the United States and obviously Mexico also . . . . We’re prepared to talk.”

“The worst thing we could do is to negotiate (the deal) in public,” MacNaughton said, just a day after Trump’s stunning upset over Hillary Clinton. He emphasized, however, that anything that hurts two-way trade between Canada and the U.S. would not serve the interest of either nation.

And MacNaughton indicated Canada would have at least one clear demand at the negotiating table: free trade in lumber.

Canada is embroiled in yet another chapter in the drawn-out softwood lumber dispute, after a 10-year deal expired last year. MacNaughton admitted “it’s a difficult challenge” to get it done by the end of the year, as 50 per cent of the U.S. industry needs to sign off on any deal. He said Canada is prepared to support Canadian forest exports in yet another round of litigation if necessary.

Trump made economic “independence” and anti-globalism a cornerstone of his unlikely presidential campaign, arguing that trade agreements have done more harm than good to the U.S. economy and employment.

The president-elect has said he intends to renegotiate NAFTA to benefit American workers, and bow out from the decades-old trade agreement if he doesn’t like the deal.

That’s one election vow that Canadian officials are scrambling to decipher in the aftermath of Trump’s election win, which has left Ottawa grappling with a surprising new reality in Washington, one was not expected.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s relationship with the U.S. president is going from “bromance” — as he quipped about his ties with Barack Obama — to a question mark with an incoming president elected on an agenda that runs counter to Liberal priorities on issues such as trade, climate change and refugees.

But in his first comments on the election result, Trudeau on Wednesday looked past the months of divisive debate in the U.S. and sought out common ground with the president-elect.

The prime minister tied his own focus on the middle class with Trump’s campaign claims that too many Americans were being left behind.

“We’ve heard clearly from Canadians and from Americans that people want a fair shot at success. People want to succeed. People want to know that themselves, that their families, that their kids, their grandkids will be able to succeed and we need to work together to get that,” Trudeau said in Ottawa.

“We share a purpose, our two countries, where we want to build places where the middle class and those working hard to join it have a chance,” he told students gathered at a We Day event.

Trudeau spoke with Trump later Wednesday to congratulate him on his win. The two men “reiterated the importance of the Canada-United States bilateral relationship and discussed various areas of mutual interest,” Trudeau’s office said.

Trudeau invited Trump to visit Canada at the “earliest opportunity” and the president-elect extended his own invitation to the prime minister.

MacNaughton suggested that the embassy has been laying the groundwork to engage the new administration, saying he’s had conversations with Trump insiders, including Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, “for some considerable period.” He said Canadian diplomats have put together a strategy for the transition but added that it’s not “fully baked.”

Former Canadian diplomat Paul Frazer said Canada is not alone in looking for “telltale” signs about the incoming administration, its personalities and a sense of its immediate priorities.

“It’s a big question mark right now,” he said in an interview.

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He predicted that Trump will have the potential to be “very pragmatic, very practical” but cautioned that tough days likely lie ahead in sorting out the new president and his style.

“Everybody is going to have to size him up and understand where he’s coming from and what his degree of manoeuvrability is going to be,” said Frazer, who now works as a consultant in Washington.

“Don’t just sharply push back without thinking about where they are coming from,” he said.

But for now his advice is, “be open, give it some serious thought, take a breath.”

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