Jon Johnson – Back To The Drawing Board On Nafta’s Rules Of Origin
From: Jon Johnson To: The Minister of International Trade and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Date: January 20, 2017 Re: Back to the Drawing Board on NAFTA’s Rules of Origin The Trump administration intends to put all aspects of the NAFTA on the (re)negotiation table. Recent reports indicate that it may put a particular focus […] The Art of Breaking the Deal: What President Trump Can and Can’t Do About NAFTA
Despite President Trump’s threats to “tear up” NAFTA, he cannot unilaterally withdraw the US from the deal, finds a new report from the C.D. Howe Institute. In “The Art of Breaking the Deal: What President Trump Can and Can’t Do About NAFTA,” author Jon Johnson notes that Congress must concur because the president and Congress […] Ciuriak and Xiao – The Danger With Retaliatory Tariffs
From: Dan Ciuriak and Jingliang Xiao To: The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of International Trade Date: January 12, 2017 Re: The Danger With Retaliatory Tariffs Congratulations on your appointment as Minister of International Trade at this momentous juncture in Canada’s international economic relations. The election of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States on […]Trump’s Zero-sum Worldview Spells Trouble For Trade: Globe And Mail Op-ed
As a Nobel Laureate once said, “The times they are a-changin’.”
The global trading system has been thrown into disarray with Donald Trump’s election and his clear disdain for international trade commitments – or, put another way, his stridently protectionist policies designed, he says, to make America great again.
This amounts to a decisive turnaround from the leadership role U.S. administrations have played since formulating the Bretton Woods agreements of 1947-48. Those American-led efforts produced the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and ultimately the WTO Agreement of 1994, with the United States leading and cajoling other governments to agree to an orderly international trading system based on widely, if…
Playing from Strength: Canada’s Trade Deal Priorities for Financial Services
Despite trade deals facing opposition, Canada still has key opportunities to expand its global presence, according to a new report from the C.D. Howe Institute. In “Playing from Strength: Canada’s Trade Deal Priorities for Financial Services,” authors Daniel Schwanen, Jeremy Kronick and Ramya Muthukumaran summarize Canada’s competitive strengths in financial and related services, and provide […] To Reboot Europe, Reprice Labour, Defuse Debt and Spur Investment: Globe and Mail Op-Ed
In Europe, as in the global economy more generally, growth has been too slow for too long. In Europe, unlike elsewhere, this is setting up an existential crisis. Restoring growth now and on a basis that directly addresses the social discontent fuelling the rise of political fringe parties has become mission-critical to sustaining the experiment.
Many solutions have been tried or proposed. Nothing has worked well, and nothing will unless the European economy is shifted from its current bad equilibrium of stagnant growth and deflationary pressures – stag-deflation, which is the mirror image of the stagflation (slow growth and high inflation) faced by the industrialized world in the 1970s.
The solution to stagflation was to…
Daniel Schwanen – Mr. Trump Reveals an Important Card
From: Daniel Schwanen To: The Honorable Chrystia Freeland, Minister of International Trade Date: November 22, 2016 Re: Mr. Trump Reveals an Important Card In a video statement released on November 21st, President-elect Trump said that on his first day in office, he would denounce the United States’ signing of the TPP agreement. What was particularly […]Ben Dachis – What Does The Us Election Mean For Canada’s Energy Sector?
From: Benjamin Dachis To: Canada’s Energy Sector Date: November 9, 2016 Re: What does the US election mean for Canada’s energy sector? For Canada’s energy sector, the lesson of the US election is to focus on competitiveness. For Canada’s oil sector, there is a widespread expectation that Mr. Trump will approve TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline. […] Daniel Schwanen – Canada and the President Elect: Deal, or no Deal?
From: Daniel Schwanen To: The Right Honourable Justin Trudeau Date: November 9, 2016 Re: Canada and the President Elect – Deal, or no Deal? President-elect Trump’s victory speech in the early hours of November 9, made his economic focus quite clear: it will be on creating economic opportunities for all Americans, rebuilding US infrastructure, and […]Bill Robson on Bloomberg: The Rise of Trump – Why It Could Happen in Canada Too
Cannot load player configCanada is Right to be Furious about European Union Trade Negotiations: Globe and Mail Op-Ed
The fate of the Canada-EU trade deal remained unclear on the weekend, thanks to the objections of Wallonia, a region in Belgium few Canadians had ever heard of before now.
After spending agonizingly frustrating days in Brussels trying to salvage the deal, Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland finally lost patience and walked out of talks on Friday, a totally appropriate response under the circumstances.
Given the amount of political capital the Trudeau government has invested in supporting this Conservative-negotiated agreement, criticisms of Ms. Freeland by Conservative politicians last week were puzzling to say the least. Even though the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) was concluded by the Harper government…
Investor-state Dispute Settlement in CETA: Is it the Gold Standard?
CETA’s investment dispute provisions have become a lightning rod for critics of the trade pact within Europe, but in its current form, the CETA text represents a significant improvement from past trade and investment deals according to a new report from the C.D. Howe Institute. In “Investor-state Dispute Settlement in CETA: Is it the Gold […]