Canada's chief NAFTA negotiator says they have high hopes for making progress this week as negotiations begin in Montreal - but that also depends on their partners.

This sixth round of talks is once again being overshadowed by U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to kill the agreement.

Trump has accused Canada of being uncooperative and has stated he won't accept any compromises, ill will that has coloured the process, says Quebec negotiator Raymond Bachand.

“Well it certainly renders the task of the American negotiations a bit more difficult, because there's room to manoeuvre where reasonable people would agree rather quickly how to move forward on many, many issues. We haven't seen that movement yet this week,” said Bachand.

The Canadian delegation, numbering about 150, will try to move forward on key issues in 30 areas, including labour, environment, Indigenous rights and intellectual property.

Certain chapters could progress more rapidly, said Mexico's lead negotiator Kenneth Smith Ramos.

“We're certainly going to try to advance on the modernizing chapters, get close to a conclusion on telecommunications. We have a chapter on anti-corruption,” he said.

There are serious sticking points with the United States, however, and so far no willingness to budge -- for example in the automotive industry, where Trump is determined to revamp the system to the Americans' advantage by demanding that half of auto parts sourced come from the U.S.

The notion is unacceptable to Mexico, and an idea Canada's foreign affairs minister referred to as "extreme."

Canada is still hesitating.

“We don't see a lot of value in making a formal counterproposal right now. We need to take a step back and talk about ideas, generate some traction with ideas and move in that direction,” said Canada’s chief negotiator Steve Verheul, who said they are hopeful the United States will meet them halfway.

“We're hoping to see that this week. We haven't seen it quite yet but we just started, so we're hoping that when we're bringing flexibility to the table, we'll see that reciprocated on the other side,” he said.

If concessions of interest to Canada are withdrawn, however, Verheul said they will stand firm.

NAFTA negotiations end Monday.