A joint conference was held in Washington in January, 1988, to assess the major features of the agreement. This volume includes the papers prepared for that conference, and the remarks of discussants on each paper. Includes a US and Canadian perspective, dispute resolution mechanisms, the auto sector, implications of the energy provisions, services and investment, implications for the Uruguay round, and the political perspectives from a Canadian government minister and a US administration representative.

On July 1, 2020, after much expectation and delay, the new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA)—a greatly revised version of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) of 1994—came into effect. This timely book by the author of the preeminent guide to NAFTA and an active participant and private sector advocate in the USMCA negotiation and legislative process provides a chapter-by-chapter analysis of the new agreement, clearly describing what has changed from the earlier agreement and what is new. After a concise but expertly calibrated summary of NAFTA, the author proceeds systematically through a practical analysis of each USMCA provision, emphasizing such crucial new elements as the following: new rules on intellectual property rights; stricter rules of origin within the automotive industry; major reforms in Mexican labor laws and their enforceability; opening of Canada’s agricultural and dairy sector to more U.S. competition; entirely new chapter on digital trade; new dispute mechanisms; requirement of an increased minimum wage in auto plants; and a new chapter on environmental standards. Changes in such important aspects of trade as textiles and apparel, ownership of hydrocarbons, cross-border trade in services, and anticorruption measures are also fully described. The USMCA is a response to a United States initiative to renegotiate NAFTA. As a key regional trade agreement with vast global ramifications, familiarity with its content and rules is essential for all business, legal, policymaking, and academic parties concerned with international trade. This useful practical guide will be a welcome addition to private and corporate libraries, including corporate counsel, customs brokers, freight forwarders, logistics and import-export managers, government officials, and academics who need a thorough understanding of the new agreement.

This book provides an in-depth analysis of "Mega-Regionals", the new generation of trans-regional free-trade agreements (FTAs) currently under negotiation, and their effect on the future of international economic law. The main focus centres on the EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), but the findings are also applicable to similar agreements under negotiation, such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).The specific features of Mega-Regional Trade Agreements raise a number of issues with respect to their potential effect on the current system of international trade and investment law. These include the consequences of Mega-Regionals for the most-favoured-nation (MFN) principle, their relation to the multilateral system of the World Trade Organization (WTO), their democratic legitimacy and their interaction with existing bilateral investment treaties (BITs).The book is intended for academics and practitioners working in the field of international economic law.

This document discusses the challenge from Mexico, the North American trade regime, North American trade and investment patterns, and issues and options for the future. It also examines what is involved in a tripartite agreement.

On 2 January 1988, Canada and the United States signed what was then the most comprehensive free trade agreeement the world had ever seen. This book is the story of those FTA negotiations, the preparations for and conduct of the negotiations, as well as the ideas and issues behind them. From their unique perspective as participants, Michael Hart, Bill Dymond, and Colin Robertson capture the drama and the personalities involved in the long struggle to make a free trade deal. They describe the extensive consultations, the turf-fighting among insiders, the innate caution of both politicians and bureaucrats, and the need to cultivate powerful constituencies in order to overcome the inertia of conventional wisdom.

The implementation of the proposed agreement would remove many of the remaining barriers to commerce between Canada and the US, but there remain many details of the proposed Agreement and many potential consequences uncertain. This volume contains the proceedings of a conference that sought to provide a neutral forum to assess the implications for Canada. Analyses the elements of the Agreement, and the regional, sectoral and labour market adjustment issues and broader concerns with respect to cultural, economic and political sovereignty.