With Mr. Trump’s election as president, every carefully orchestrated American policy (like China and Taiwan) and every nuanced and finely negotiated treaty (like the Iran nuclear deal) is up for grabs. That is equally true for trade agreements like the NAFTA, repeatedly slammed by Mr. Trump as the worst deal every signed by the United… Read More »
As we try to come to grips with all the implications of the Trump ascendency, there are some important points for Canada to contemplate when it comes to bilateral trade matters. First, Trump will move quickly to demand re-negotiation of the NAFTA and while his acrimony is focused on Mexico, as a trilateral agreement Canada… Read More »
The investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS) part of the CETA is the focus of Wallonia’s objections to the deal. We can actually solve that roadblock. ISDS was never a sine qua non for Canada. We replicated the NAFTA model (making some later improvements) without any real thought or analysis of whether the Canadian investment community saw ISDS as… Read More »
There was a most unfortunate development in October 2016 preventing the European side from approving the Canada-EU trade agreement, formally known as the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). On 24 October, tiny Wallonia refused to allow Belgium to agree to the CETA, resulting in a cancellation of the planned treaty signature the same week… Read More »
With the unthinkable – being increasingly discussed – of Britain withdrawing from the EU, questions are asked as to what this means for Canada. What are the implications for the Canada UK trade? And how does it affect the Canada-EU trade agreement? The answer is simple. Brexit will mean a lot of uncertainty on the trade… Read More »
Lawrence Herman appeared before the House of Commons Trade Committee, at their request, on 5 May 2016, to present testimony on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP). The following are notes from Mr. Herman tabled with the Committee. Lawrence L. Herman Notes for Presentation, 5 May 2016 Introduction The following are general comments on the TPPA… Read More »
Here is the link to my op-ed piece in the Financial Post, 8 October 2015, explaining what the implications are if Canada was to reject the TPP Agreement. We would retain all our MFN rights under the WTO Agreement and all the advantages under the NAFTA – but we would lose access to the better… Read More »
Here is an op-ed of mine published in the Globe & Mail, on line on 5 October 2015 and in the 6 October print version. You can also see it here. http://bit.ly/1MbGaqt Lawrence Herman is a principal at Herman and Associates. He practises international trade law and is a senior fellow of the C.D. Howe Institute… Read More »
Many of us are hopeful that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations will wrap up sometime soon and that the deal will require Canada to open up its highly-protected dairy, poultry and eggs sectors – dairy being the most egregiously protected, outmoded Soviet-style regime. Trade negotiations aren’t a zero-sum game, and if Canada has to compromise… Read More »