Canadian trade: by the numbers
88: Number of trade and investment agreements, including several World Trade Organization pacts, the Canadian government has either implemented, signed, or is in the process of negotiating. 1989: The year Canada’s first modern free trade deal, with the United States, went into force. It was superseded by the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994. $662.7-billion: […]
Bureaucrats ‘literally working around the clock’ to prep for NAFTA talks
The federal government is working day and night to prepare itself as the new Trump administration in the United States eyes restructuring the North American Free Trade Agreement, according to a senior official in Canada’s foreign ministry. “If my colleague Martin is looking a little tired these days, it’s because he and his trade policy colleagues […]
Europe-Canada trade deal’s investment court faces tough road, but ‘the mood is shifting’
The heavy lifting is done for proponents of the Europe-Canada trade deal, but the future of the investment protection system that fuelled the toughest opposition to the agreement remains up in the air. Business leaders are also concerned about how the government will fill in the details of the agreement with regulations, particularly when it […]
TPP is worth more as a minus-one
CALGARY—Next week’s meeting of Trans-Pacific Partnership countries in Chile to test the waters on a collective response the United States’ withdrawal from the pact needs serious attention in Canada, as the results of the meeting—positive, negative, or nothing—will determine the near-term future of Canada’s trade agenda in Asia. The meeting in Chile is technically a […]
Trade
Trudeau government should adjust Trump strategy
It’s time to conclude, on a balance of probabilities, that Donald Trump will be merely an ineffectual president. For a while it seemed the White House’s listless new tenant might have some sort of trade strategy. For a few days he even seemed to be preparing for an attack on Iran. That seems so long […]
Transparency in today’s grain market just not possible
Many farmers are complaining about grain prices being offered this winter, especially for wheat. It is hard to find a port price for wheat, but data from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada states the average price this year is north of $8.60 per bushel at Vancouver and even higher on the world market. Yet farmers are only […]
Mulroney’s right, renegotiating NAFTA will be rough and more than a ‘tweak’
TORONTO—Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland was only stating the obvious when she told a recent conference that any negotiations on the future of NAFTA had to be a three-way negotiation. “NAFTA is a three-country agreement and we need a three-country negotiation,” she said. Still, it was important for her to say this since there is […]
Treading water in the Caribbean
HAVANA—The line-ups are longer than ever to get into La Bodeguita del Medio, the hole-in-the-wall bar in Old Havana that has been thriving for decades on its reputation as an Ernest Hemingway favourite. The throngs of tourists waiting to sip a mojito in the graffiti-festooned bistro are swollen now with Americans as well as Cuba’s […]
Trudeau put Canadian interests ahead of politics for Trump visit
TORONTO—There is no doubt that the visit Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made to the White House last week to meet U.S. President Donald Trump was a success. All the people in the Prime Minister’s Office and the Privy Council Office involved in the preparation of the meeting must be congratulated. They have shown diplomatic skills, […]
