Huawei & Canadian National Security
No Peace in the Trade Valley
Peace in the Trade Valley-FP Comment 13 Aug 2020 This is a comment in the Financial Post, 13 August 2020, explaining how privately-driven trade disputes (like dumping and subsidy complaints) will continue even if Washington and Beijing conclude some kind of trade armistice. The WTO Agreement plus countless investment treaties worldwide allow private parties to… Read More »
Investment Disputes in a Post-Pandemic World
This article is a summary of the state of investment disputes under the so-called Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) systems in various treaties to which Canada is party. It looks at current win-loss record for Canada and deals with the phase out of NAFTA investment disputes under the new Canada-US-Mexico Trade Agreement or CUSMA. While these… Read More »
Future of the World Trade Organization
Some thoughts of mine in a commentary published by the Financial Post on May 19, 2020, suggesting a new post-pandemic agenda for the WTO, giving it a new item to tackle and helping to get it out of its current political torpor, made more difficult by the Trump administration’s attacks on the Organization. https://bit.ly/2Zlhg9h
CUSMA – One Last Hurdle Remains
This was a commentary published in the Report on Business (Globe and Mail) on 8 April 2020. In the piece, I wonder why the Trump administration hasn’t provided the official notice needed to get the CUSMA into effect. I suspect much of it is related to the auto rules of orgin, something Mexico has also… Read More »
COVID-19 Crisis & Trump’s Export Controls
Submission to House of Commons Trade Committee
This is a copy of my submission to the Canadian House of Commons Trade Committee in advance of my testimony on February 20. 2020. I say that the task before the Committee in to bring Canadian laws into line with CUSMA. It is an implementing bill, not a treaty re-negotiating exercise. If the Bill and… Read More »
New US China Trade Deal-Betrayal of WTO Rules?
This is a commentary in the Report on Business on the recently-announced US-China trade deal, a short-term arrangement that, in my view, is contrary to the non-discrimination (MFN) rules in the WTO Agreement. It’s a purely two-way deal that favours US businesses to the prejudice of other WTO members. US China Trade Deal Comment 23 January… Read More »