Category Archives: Trade Agreements

China & Private Global Regulation

Line 5 & the Canada-US Pipeline Treaty

This comment looks at the 1977 Pipeline Treaty, binding on the United States, designed especially to guaranty unimpeded pipeline transit. It was approved by the U.S. Senate (including by then Senator Biden) specifically to prevent any state or province from interfering with hydrocarbon shipments. This means the U.S. president has to take steps to ensure… Read More »

Reshoring Initiative Targets Behaviours, Not Laws

This is an opinion piece of mine in the Globe & Mail (Toronto), 20 April 2021, commenting on how private sector actions – such as guidelines, standards and certifications – can affect international business and trade. These are developments that don’t depend on, and are separate from, governmental actions like statutes or treaties. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-reshoring-initiative-targets-behaviours-not-laws/

World Trade Organization-Comment on its Many Challenges

This is an opinion piece published in the Globe and Mail, 3 March 2021. It comments on two main institutional factors that will impact on the future of the WTO, noting these are among the many formidable challenges facing the new Director-General. Can the WTO be Saved

How Should Canada Respond to Biden’s Buy American Policies?

Here is my commentary – published by the MacDonald-Laurier Institute, 25 February 2021 – on the various aspects of President Biden’s new Buy American policies and their implications for Canadian suppliers. https://bit.ly/2PdQpJl

Bibliography – Publications, Articles, Papers (1978-2021)

This is a listing of Lawrence Herman’s published articles, etc. over the last 40 or so years. A selection of newspaper columns and editorial comments are included here. Bibliography-current to Feb 2021

EU-China Investment Treaty Raises Concerns

This comment deals with the legal and geopolitical ramifications of the recent EU-China investment treaty. It notes that Canada also has an investment agreement with China, concluded at a different time and when there was seen to be value in this kind of deal with China. Investment Treaty with China Raises Concerns-Globe 14 Jan 2021

2021 Trade Priorities: Make CUSMA Work & Fix the WTO

This is a comment of mine, printed in the Financial Post on 15 December 2020, with some recommendations for 2021 for those ministers in the Trudeau government in charge of Canadian trade policy, including the PM himself. 2021 trade priorities-Financial Post Op-Ed CDHI Reprint

Cultural Property – Controlling Illicit Trade

This article was done by me and Alexander Herman, Institute of Art and Law, London, U.K., in commemoration of the 50th anniversary, in November 2020, of the groundbreaking UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export & Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. UNESCO Convention at 50

Canadian Trade Laws – Need for More Surgical Use

This memo issued by the Canadian Global Affairs Institute (CGAI) looks at certain American trade laws and whether Canada could use some of these US models more effectively, to the benefit of open markets and Canadian commercial interests, while sticking to WTO rules. Surgical Use of Cdn Trade Laws – CGAI Nov 2020