Canada's NAFTA negotiator says talks moving in the 'right direction' - Action News
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Canada's NAFTA negotiator says talks moving in the 'right direction'

Chief negotiators from all three NAFTA countries met today to recap the week but the question now is what their political bosses will think of the results from the most recent round of talks.

Steve Verheul says progress is being made but there's still a long way to go

Canada's chief NAFTA negotiator Steve Verheul speaks to the media as he leaves for the lunch break at the sixth round of the North American Free Trade Agreement Thursday in Montreal. There were notes of cautious optimism around this round of talks. (Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press)

When you walk around the hallways in the Hotel Bonaventure in downtown Montreal, you see white pieces of paper shoved under many hotel room doors.

NAFTAnegotiators are settlingup their hotel billsand heading outas political staffers get ready to move in.

Chief negotiators from all three NAFTA countries met on Saturday to recap the week, and prepare for the arrival of their bosses.

Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Mexico's secretary of the economy, Ildefonso Guajardo, will stand together in Montreal onMonday and reveal whether the optimism offered up by some involved in the latest round of talks signals any meaningful progress.

'Moving in the right direction'

"I think it was a positive week, we're moving in the right direction, but there's a long ways to go," Canada's chief negotiator Steve Verheul said Saturday.

"We're still negotiating and that's the main thing."

The Canadians used this NAFTA round to try and ease tensions on the most controversial proposals at the table by suggesting a series of compromises.

Mexico's chief negotiator Kenneth Smith Ramos speaks to the media on the second day of the sixth round of NAFTA talks. Next up, the political bosses. (Graham Hughes/Canadian Press)

Ideas around the auto sector, the dispute resolution process and a sunset clause have not been rejected outright by the Americans yet.

Canada and Mexico see thatas a positive development.

But there is still a deep sense of anxiety, triggered by memories of the last joint public outing for Freeland, Lighthizerand Guajardo.

At the end of the fourth round of talks in October, all three stood on a small stage in Washington and openly criticized each other.

Freeland accused the U.S. of embracing a "winner takes all" mindset but Lighthizer's words were just as pointed, accusing Canada and Mexico of being inflexible.

Monday's meeting will be the first public opportunity to hear what the Trump administration thinks about the compromises and if they're willing to discuss the ideas further.

Trump stress release

In front of the hotel where negotiators were hammering out details, dozens of protesters gathered Saturday afternoon demanding delegates consider worker-friendly policies.

In the crowd, a young woman held a stack of strange looking cardboard cutouts.

"These are Donald Trump stress cards," she said

(Katie Simpson/CBC)

Each square, roughly the size of a greeting card, contains sixteen small photos of the U.S. president, with each photo covered in bubble wrap.

"You see his face...under bubble wrap and you just pop it, and it's so satisfying," said creator Babs Chute.

The cards are $10 each, and Chute said she has sold about 100.

She said her Trump-related feelings of anxiety are not because of his contradictory statements on NAFTA, but rather his war of words with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

"I came up with it last fall right around the Donald Trump rocket man diatribe, and they've been selling like hot cakes," she said.

"I have really good friends on the West Coast, and the notion something could happen because of Donald Trump's diatribe really knocks the wind out of me,"

Chute was busy pitching her creation to anti-NAFTA protesters on Saturday afternoon. But she could have new high-profile Canadian customers if this round of trade talksdoesn't go well.

With a file from The Associated Press