Behind the scenes of how Canada’s ‘dream team’ negotiates NAFTA

Chief negotiator Steve Verheul, and Canada's top two officials in Washington, David MacNaughton and Kirsten Hillman, are among the dozens involved in the sensitive trade talks, which see negotiators holed up in a different North American capital's hotel board rooms every few weeks to hash out the text.
Mexico's Economy Secretary Ildefonso Guajardo, Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland, and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer exit a press briefing during the third round of negotiations to rework NAFTA.
Every few weeks this fall, roughly 300 Canadians, Americans, and Mexicans descend on a hotel in one of their respective capitals for about five days. While lobbyists chat in the hotel coffee shop or restaurant and reporters troll for tidbits of news, trade negotiators are holed up in hotel board roo...

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