It’s been reported that a NAFTA investment dispute panel has ordered Canada to pay $17 million in compensation to Exxon-Mobil and Murphy Oil due to changes to the to the Canada-Newfoundland Offshore Petroleum Board Guidelines governing offshore oil and gas development on the continental shelf off Newfoundland and Labrador. The award isn’t public as yet, but… Read More »
Just when there was some feeling that the old Canada-US trade wars of a couple of decades back were really at an end, there are new and darkening clouds on the horizon. The first bit of gloom is in softwood lumber, a dispute that’s been off the front burner for a while under a bilateral… Read More »
Op-Ed published in The Globe and Mail on January 28, 2015 Lawrence L. Herman, principal at Herman and Associates, practises international trade law and is a senior fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute in Toronto. It’s happening again. In the early 1980s, Canadians witnessed the sorry spectacle of provinces roaming around Westminster, cap in hand, lobbying… Read More »
The broad and aggressive out-reach of US law has again reared up in Canada. This time it’s Buy America and the requirement that the Prince Rupert ferry upgrade must use US steel. It shows how Canada can be sideswiped by the American approach in legislating with intended global effect. In this case, a rapid Canadian… Read More »
I just published a short article on the current controversy regarding the rights of investors to invoke binding dispute settlement proceedings again host governments. This is known as Investor-State Dispute Settlement or ISDS and is enshrined in hundreds of bilateral investment protection treaties around the world. The issue has recently come to the fore with… Read More »
Here is a commentary of mine that was published in the Financial Post on October 2, 2014. To see the actual FP piece, click here. October 2, 2014 China investment treaty no sell-out Special to Financial Post Lawrence L. Herman: Predictions of doom over the Canada-China deal aren’t borne out by real-life experience Predictions of… Read More »
Prime Minister Harper and EU President Barroso have signed the formal text of the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). Don’t be surprised when I tell you that this isn’t the final step. It isn’t. Under the Law of Treaties (yes, there is such a thing) signature by authorized representatives is a necessary first… Read More »
On August 27, 2014, a NAFTA panel dismissed a claim by the Canadian pharmaceutical company, Apotex Inc., that had argued that the US government had breached the non-discrimination clauses in the Agreement by issuing an Import Alert over the company’s Canadian drug manufacturing processes. In 2008 -2009. the US Food and Drug Administration had inspected… Read More »
There was flurry of media excitement last week over the leak in Germany (on August 14th) of an unofficial and incomplete version of the Canada-EU economic and trade agreement (CETA). But not much real drama. In fact, public and business reactions in Canada have been quite tame. Leak Was Expected As the final drafting by… Read More »
The current cavalcade of sanctions and counter-sanctions in the Russian-Ukraine crisis ultimately involves issues of trade rules under the WTO Agreement. I commented on this in an op-ed piece in the Globe and Mail today (August 8, 2014), my view being that, contrary to the Russian threat, it’s Russian trade retaliation against the West, including… Read More »