Op-Eds
Published in Embassy on April 24, 2013
By Daniel Schwanen
Twenty-five years ago Canada was in the throes of an intense national debate over its bilateral Free Trade Agreement with the United States. At the time, the agreement had not yet been ratified. The ensuing general election marked the last time electoral participation exceeded 75 per cent of registered voters, and it resulted in a victory for supporters of the agreement, which duly came into effect on Jan. 1, 1989.
Today, Canada is negotiating next-generation trade agreements that will facilitate commercial relations with other significant partners such as the European Union and many countries across the Pacific.
As well, Canada is committed to easing…
Published in the Financial Post on October 27, 2012
By Lawrence Herman and Daniel Schwanen
The recent agreement between Canada and China for the Promotion and Reciprocal Protection and Investments, which is to be ratified by Canada on Oct. 31, has given rise to a debate characterized by more heat than light.
There are some two and a half thousand such agreements in force around the world today, including well over 100 signed by China. True, an earlier vintage of Chinese investment treaties did not allow for an impartial investor-state dispute settlement mechanism, such as the one contemplated between Canada and China. But all recent ones signed by China — including with such advanced Western nations as Germany…
Published in the Financial Post on March 14, 2012
By Laura Dawson and Daniel Schwanen
International Trade Minister Ed Fast and his officials have been globe-hopping in an effort to promote Canada’s genuine interest in joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership. These attempts to shore up support from the United States and the bloc’s other eight members highlight the government’s recognition of the importance of this agreement to building Canada’s trade ties across the Pacific.
The TPP aims to bring trade and investment relations between East and West into the 21st century. The rules and commitments of the TPP will extend far beyond those of any existing free trade agreement, essentially redefining the rules of global…
Published in the Financial Post on September 20, 2010
By Michael Hart
For nearly a century, Canadian and American officials have worked together to reduce the divide created by their common border. Until 9/11, their efforts were crowned with increasing success; after 9/11, security concerns thickened the border and undermined the benefits that Canadians and Americans had come to expect from what Sir Winston Churchill once characterized as the world’s longest undefended border.
This downward spiral need not, and should not, continue. Modern technology allows the two governments to return to the successful trajectory of the past by pre-clearing as many people and goods as possible before they arrive at the…
Published in the Financial Post on June 30, 2010
By Finn Poschmann
In 2009's G20 meetings in London and Pittsburgh, participating governments spoke of the urgent need for collective action to restore the global economy's functioning by spending "stimulus" money in record amounts, and to agree on speedy regulatory reforms that would restore stability to the financial marketplace.
Last weekend in Toronto, the urgent language remained in the summit communique, yet the direction had changed sharply. Rather than commit to further deficit spending, wildly beyond the means of governments to finance in the near term, G20 members declared victory in generating global recovery and agreed to pare back their overspending…