Bullit Marquez, Pool, AFP | Canada's Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland gestures as she delivers her statement at the ASEAN-Canada Ministerial Meeting in suburban Manila on August 6, 2017.

Canada wants environmental protections added to a 23-year-old continental trade pact with Mexico and the United States, its top diplomat said Monday, ahead of trilateral talks slated to begin on Wednesday.

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These protections, as laid out in a speech by Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland at the University of Ottawa, would form part of stronger North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) labour provisions.

The proposed changes would also formally recognise gender and indigenous rights, and make it harder for companies to challenge government decisions that are in the "public interest," she said.

NAFTA talks are scheduled to start Wednesday in Washington and last several months.

“We are seizing this opportunity to make what is already a good agreement, even better.” – Min Freeland speaking about #NAFTA @uOttawaCIPS pic.twitter.com/CEkd7X0xz6 — Canada Trade (@CanadaTrade) August 14, 2017

Ottawa and Washington have diverged on environmental issues, with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau championing the fight against climate change, and US President Donald Trump announcing his country's withdrawal of the 2015 Paris accord on global warming.

But Canada has continued to cooperate with like-minded US states on climate issues.

"We can make NAFTA more progressive by bringing strong labour safeguards into the core of the agreement," Freeland said in her speech, "by integrating enhanced environmental provisions to ensure no NAFTA country weakens environmental protection to attract investment, for example, and that fully supports efforts to address climate change".

To reporters, she acknowledged: "On the environment, it is no secret to anyone that Canada has a different view (than the US) of probably the most important step the world has taken when it comes to the fight against climate change, which is the Paris accord."

But she added that both nations’ environmental standards have been strengthened since the original 1994 NAFTA deal, and the Trump administration has signalled to Canada its desire to continue working together to protect their "many shared environments".

Freeland cited the Canada-EU free trade agreement that comes into effect on September 21 and includes a section on environmental protections as a template for modernising the country's trade ties with the United States and Mexico.

Freeland also called for changes to NAFTA to take into account technological advances of the past two decades, harmonising regulations, removing barriers to bidding on government procurement, and allowing greater movement of professionals between the three countries.

She vowed a spirited defence of Canada's supply-managed dairy and poultry industries, and cultural sector, and reaffirmed a demand to maintain a strong dispute settlement system that Trump has said he wants nixed.

According to Canadian government figures, Canada, the United States and Mexico together account for one-quarter of the world's economy, with a combined 470 million consumers.

Trilateral trade has tripled since 1994 to Can$19 trillion (US$15 trillion).

Freeland said that Canada is the United States's biggest customer, buying more from the United States than China, Britain and Japan combined.

Bilateral trade in goods and services in 2016 was valued at US$635.1 billion. The United States had a slight trade surplus of US$8.1 billion with Canada last year.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

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