Ottawa's position on the dispute mechanism is a statement of the obvious.  There would be no point in having an agreement without this in place.  It will be a clear indication to gauge U.S. serious intent in its' negotiations if it remain stuck on this issue.  There would not even be a need to attend the negotiations as this would be a declaration from the U.S. of NAFTA concluding. This is nothing more than ballyhoo by the Liberal government that they will be tough in negotiations.  They had better be.

On a side note, any negotiations with the Chinese government on a trade deal would have to include the same type of trade dispute mechanism.