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By Christopher Guly

OTTAWA, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Canada will press the United States to retain a dispute-resolution mechanism and protect Canada's supply-management system in the upcoming redrafting talks of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) talks between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said here Monday.

"Canada will uphold and preserve the elements in NAFTA that Canadians deem key to our national interest, including a process to ensure anti-dumping and countervailing duties are only applied fairly when truly warranted," she said in a speech at the University of Ottawa's Centre for International Policy Studies.

A dispute-resolution mechanism under Chapter 19 of NAFTA allows Canada and Mexico to appeal countervailing and anti-dumping duties imposed by the U.S. through independent tribunals that have often ruled against the U.S. rather than through judicial reviews in U.S. courts.

The Americans want to eliminate Chapter 19. But Freeland warned that Canada has walked out of talks before on the issue, such as in 1987 when then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan's administration initially refused to agree to a binding binational review of anti-dumping and countervailing duties during negotiations between Canada and the U.S. over the bilateral trade deal that preceded NAFTA.

"Our government will be equally resolute," said the Foreign Affairs Minister. "Just as good fences make good neighbors, strong dispute settlement systems make good trading partners."

She explained that as part of Canada's commitment to reaching a "good deal," Canadian negotiators hope to preserve the exception in NAFTA to protect the country' s supply-management system, under which Canada imposes high duties to restrict imports of milks, cheese, eggs and poultry and that the U.S. believes is protectionist and unfairly favors Canadian farmers.

Freeland told reporters here following her speech and appearance before the House of Commons Standing Committee on International Trade that the U.S. sells Canada "far more than we sell them" in dairy products, "at a rate of roughly five-to-one" and noted that the U.S. also subsidizes its dairy industry.

In her university address, the minister said that Canada aims to "modernize" 23-year-old NAFTA and make it a "fair trade deal' and "more progressive" in such ways as by introducing strong labor safeguards; integrating enhanced environmental provisions "to ensure no NAFTA country weakens environmental protection to attract investment; and adding chapters on gender rights and Indigenous rights.

There is some common ground between Canada and the U.S., such as the "desire to liberate our companies from needless bureaucracy," according to Freeland, who said that Canada will rely on some of the issues covered in its deal with the European Union - which will be provisionally applied on Sept. 21 pending full ratification by all EU member states - and will seek a freer market for government procurement.

"Local-content provisions for major government contracts are political junk food - superficially appetizing, but unhealthy in the long run," Freeland said. "Procurement liberalization can go hand-in-hand with further regulatory harmonization."

She added that Canada also wants to make it easier for the cross-border movement of professionals by expanding NAFTA Chapter 16 that deals with the temporary entry of businesspeople.

On Tuesday, Freeland will have dinner with her U.S. and Mexican counterparts in Washington, D.C. the night before the first round of formal negotiations for NAFTA 2.0 begins in the U.S. capital.