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OTTAWA, Jan. 19-- The Canadian Chamber of Commerce is suggesting the more than 200,000 companies in its network renew any permits required to do business in the United States sooner than later in case U.S. President Donald Trump's administration scraps the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between Canada, the United States and Mexico. "We all live in hope that common sense will prevail at the end of the day," chamber president and chief executive officer Perrin Beatty, a former Canadian cabinet minister, said in an interview with Xinhua Friday. "However, we're dealing with an administration that is very nativist and that is talking about putting impediments in the way of trade, which is not what we're doing in Canada. We see engaging American businesses as a positive thing." Next Tuesday, American, Canadian and Mexican trade officials will convene in Montreal to begin the sixth round of talks to renegotiate NAFTA - a deal that Trump has opposed since his campaign for the presidency and which on Thursday he described as "a bad joke" on Twitter. Retired Canadian diplomat Colin Robertson remains uncertain about the future of NAFTA, which he helped draft. "If we were dealing with any other administration, I would say yes we would solve the differences. But because of Donald Trump, I don't know. On a daily basis, you wonder where he is coming from," said Robertson. He said the U.S. president has recently sent mixed signals regarding Mexico, where he told the Wall Street Journal that he would be "flexible" on his threat to withdraw from NAFTA in light of this year's Mexican presidential election, yet also said that Mexico would pay for his much-promised U.S.-Mexico border wall "indirectly" through changes to the trilateral trade pact. | 
