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The Biden administration's strategy in the Indo-Pacific is of twofold interest. On the one hand, it breaks with the approach that the United States has always advocated since the 1980s, namely the general opening of markets through free trade agreements. And on the other hand, the economy, more than trade, is at the center of the negotiations, with security, technology, and the resilience of value chains as the main issues. Is this a turning point? After placing the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) in its historical context, the author makes seven observations about it, to conclude that the initiative currently raises more questions than it provides answers to the United States economic security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wheat market integration between the US and the UK before the "first era of globalization" (in the second half of the nineteenth century) was frequently interrupted by policy and "exogenous" events such as wars. This paper adds Canada to this story by looking at trade and price data, as well as contemporary debates. This allows us to triangulate the role of policy and wars, since Canada as a small open economy was part of the British Empire. We find that, despite its privileged access to British markets, Canada faced similar barriers to the US, suggesting that membership of the British Empire provided only a modest benefit to trade. We also describe the limitations she faced accessing the US market, in particular after American independence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines trends in enforcement of anti-cartel and antidumping laws in Canada since 1990. A major contribution is the creation of a timeline of Competition Bureau activity over the 1990–2019 period, possibly the first such effort. Simple regression analysis finds both types of enforcement measures to be counter-cyclical, consistent with previous work for other countries. They also seem to respond as expected to budgetary and exchange rate movements. Trends in these two measures are independent from each other, consistent with differing economic and political motivations behind the two, as well as differing actors responsible for instigating the two types of cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the possible role of US trade liberalization in explaining Puerto Rico's deindustrialization. In order to address this issue, time series techniques were used. The results of the Granger Causality Test suggest that the imports made by the US from Mexico, Canada, Ireland, and Costa Rica do not explain Puerto Rico's deindustrialization. Therefore, no causal relationship was found between the imports made by the US from its NAFTA partners and the countries where the corporations that benefited from Section 936 relocated with the deindustrialization of Puerto Rico. Besides, the impulse response exercise suggests that in the first period, deindustrialization explains its variability by 100%, and in the final period, it explains 95.47%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of the academic literature criticizes the inclusion of patent term extensions (PTE) and test data protection into the pharmaceutical provisions and/or intellectual property (IP) chapters of free trade agreements (FTAs), with many arguing that such provisions will increase the cost of pharmaceuticals for the implementing government. Such arguments are often backed by studies conducted prior to the conclusion of the relevant FTA. This is problematic for several reasons, most notably that the studies make assumptions that subsequently turn out not to be false and that the claims are not revisited and supported with empirical data following implementation. This article reviews the experience of two jurisdictions – Canada and Australia – in order to provide an analysis of legislative and judicial practices with a focus on implications and the cost of FTAs. The article examines how Canada and Australia have implemented their FTA obligations domestically and on the hereto ignored but important role of courts. One key finding is how courts in both countries are vigilant in narrowing the scope of obligations under FTAs to accommodate the need of the domestic market. The article ultimately concludes by calling on governments to conduct a detailed analysis of PTE and test data protection so as to better inform and prepare policymakers and, ultimately, improved FTA provisions and health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper applies the Ramsey–Cass–Koopmans (RCK) growth model to an open economy so that, when calibrated with standard parameter values that are commonly used in the small open economy macroeconomic literature, the time paths of the model variables and the speeds of convergence implied by the model conform with empirical evidence. Open-economy versions of the RCK growth model lead to several counterfactual conclusions including: infinite speeds of convergence for physical capital and output; and unbalanced consumption and asset growth. We avoid these undesired results by extending the baseline model with human capital, international credit constraints, and finite horizons. Given its finite-horizons feature, our model allows us to study the growth implications of changes in life expectancy from the perspective of an open economy, as most of the existing theoretical-quantitative literature that focus on the relationship assumes a closed economy. The model predicts that increased life expectancy has positive but diminishing marginal effect on long-run output per capita. We find that, between 1960 and 2018, improvements in average life expectancy at birth raised long-run output per capita in sub-Saharan Africa, the OECD region, and Canada by an estimated 57.49 %, 14.94 %, and 11.58 %, respectively. In addition, if average life expectancy at birth in sub-Saharan African countries converges from its current level to the level in their OECD counterparts, the region's long-run output per capita will increase by an estimated 22.89 %. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Populist rejection of the embedded liberal international order is evident in many Western democracies. This is partly attributable to the architects of this system, who over-promised widespread benefits while ignoring warnings from labour and fair-trade advocates about risks to economic security from transnational economic competition. This article contrasts Canadian and American conservative populist positions on free trade. Globalisation and free trade without consideration for fair trade weakened the embedded liberal compromise and undermined the Keynesian welfare state model which sustained it. While regional free trade agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement have had marginal negative effects, they became convenient scapegoats in a strategy of "othering" adopted by Trump and other populists. Populism arose in part in response to middle- and working-class decline (alongside cultural changes and revitalised nativism), which eroded support for embedded liberalism. The heretofore pro-trade GOP followed Trump to a more protectionist and bilateral model to press for "America first," tinged by nativist othering towards Mexico and China. This diverged from Canadian right-populist leaders, whose rhetoric generally supports freer trade despite scepticism among some supporters. Asymmetrical circumstances of the US as a global economic hegemon vs. Canada as trade-dependent middle power limits the feasibility of a protectionist, "Canada first" position while particularities of political and electoral systems create more room for nativism in the US. Polling results indicate support for free trade in both nations, with a priority for labour and social protections, which provides the potential for further engagement in progressive trade liberalisation. Hence a significant percentage of the population supports "fair-trade" approaches, not protectionism. However, many conservative politicians eschew fair-trade positions and endorse anti-labour policies. Despite gains such as the labour provisions in the Canada--US--Mexico Agreement, a right-populist alliance with fair-trade advocates and labour unions is unsustainable and would entail compromises like climate denial, anti-immigrant, and anti-equity approaches which hinder the pursuit of progressive multilateral trading regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following Carter and Mérel (2016), we explore the export benefits of reforming supply management (SM) in Canada's dairy sector. A trade model with ten regions and five dairy product categories is developed and used to examine the potential benefits of opening international markets to Canadian dairy products. In addition to a baseline, three scenarios are compared—one with SM in place but with Canada able to export freely. Two other scenarios assume SM is eliminated and there is complete free trade, but with high‐ and low‐cost structures. Findings indicate that, in the high‐cost scenario, domestic consumers gain from lower prices as the domestic supply and exports fall compared to the status quo, but producers are less well off. However, under a low domestic cost structure, Canada becomes a major exporter of milk, with both producers and consumers gaining from free trade. This scenario assumes that domestic producers take advantage of economies of scale, enabling them to compete in international markets. Appropriate policies will be required to reform the quota regime, while minimizing the harm done to dairy farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canada is well known as an export-based economy, particularly with respect to its agricultural and agri-food industries. Since the signing of the Canada-U.S. Trade Agreement (CUSTA) in 1989, the federal government has negotiated trade agreements with more than 40 international partners, providing Canadian firms with access to a multitude of foreign markets while also giving consumers at home a greater set of choices in the market for a great number of goods and services. Progress on more liberalized internal trade within the federation has not, however, kept pace with accomplishments on the international trade front. Despite the implementation of the Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT) in 1995 and the Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) in 2017 (along with several smaller but significant interprovincial agreements), a number of significant barriers remain to internal trade in goods and services in Canada. The focus of this paper is upon barriers that prevent the movement of goods and services among provinces, referred to as interprovincial trade barriers. There are a number of different types of these barriers; one such type is tariffs (which function similar to a sales tax) upon goods and services themselves. While tariffs are a major topic of study in international trade, they do not form a focus of this paper, which will instead focus on non-tariff barriers or NTBs. One such category of barriers to internal trade includes natural barriers such as lakes, rivers, mountain ranges and the simple distance between potential trading partners. A second type is called prohibitive barriers, which make illegal the movement of certain types of goods or services among provinces; perhaps the most wellknown of these pertains to the prohibition of the movement of alcohol or tobacco between provinces. Technical and regulatory/administrative barriers also exist, and pertain to provincial differences in requirements within specific sectors, licensing requirements, etc. The Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) has noted that differences in trucking regulations as well as inconsistent regulation of provincially and federally inspected meat-processing facilities are of particular concern in the agricultural and agri-food industries (CFA 2021). These barriers are costly to the Canadian economy, limiting its growth, output, efficiency and productivity. Estimates by Alvarez et al. (2019) suggest that Canadian GDP would increase by between one and four per cent if trade in goods alone were completely liberalized. This is approximately $92 billion per year, an amount that, if realized, could lead to significant job creation, increased streams of taxation revenue for government, enhanced economic growth and improved productivity. Economists have long cited the efficient and welfare-maximizing outcomes associated with unfettered markets, and removal of interprovincial trade barriers would provide significant gains for the Canadian economy. Several important drivers have led to the current situation where barriers to interprovincial trade constrict the freer flow of goods and services in Canada. One of them is federalism itself, where the duty of provincial governments is to act in the best interest of constituents, even if it means overall gains to Canada as a whole are not being realized. Related to this is a second driver, which is the balancing act that courts must strike in Canada when interpreting both federal and provincial legislation in areas where both levels of government can be argued to have jurisdiction. A third driver is the potential for stakeholders to act to prevent liberalization of trade if it is in their best interest to do so. Regulators and gatekeepers, industry associations and even governments can have vested financial or personal interest in the status quo, and be hesitant to change it even if they recognize that change would have the potential to provide greater economic benefits to others. A final driver that has led to the current system is the sheer amount of time, effort and expertise that would be required to update the current system. There are at least three plausible options for reducing interprovincial barriers to trade in Canada. The first would be to encourage courts to interpret relevant legislation in a way that would aid the freer flow of products and services internally. For example, section 121 of the Constitution Act seems to clearly require the free movement of goods among provinces, but the Supreme Court of Canada has, out of respect for provinces' rights, deferred to the notion of federalism and consistently interpreted legislation in a way that permits provinces to put limits on trade. Should the Court interpret 121 in a more constructionist way, interprovincial trade would increase. A second option is for provinces to independently negotiate more open markets in Canada. The New West Partnership Trade Agreement (NWPTA) among the four Western provinces has been successful, as have other regional agreements, at opening markets and generating economic benefits. A third option is to use the CFTA's mechanisms and resources at the federal and provincial levels to remove barriers on an industry-by-industry basis. Given the sheer number of firms and industries, it is more cumbersome to negotiate large-scale, national or multi-provincial agreements than smaller scale, industry-specific ones. There are costs and benefits associated with each of these options. Requiring courts to revise how they interpret law is beyond the power of the federal and provincial governments. Striking new trade partnerships is a time-consuming process, with no assurance of success. Negotiating improvements in specific subsectors and industries is achievable, but provides only incremental gains. From a benefits perspective, there is much to be gained: the estimated economic benefits from the freer flow of goods and services are considerable, although it is likely that those with a vested interest will see some of their current benefits transferred to others as a result of removing trade barriers. Overall, it seems obvious that previous work to liberalize trade has been fruitful, and a combination of the options proposed is likely to be worth the effort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are growing concerns that the COVID-19 pandemic is strengthening nationalism around the world by fueling discrimination, unilateralism, and economic crises. However, there have been few empirical analyses of the effect of the pandemic on individuals' level of nationalism. Using evidence from two original surveys conducted in Canada in 2019 and 2020, I show that public support for international economic integration has increased rather than decreased since the outbreak of the pandemic. The survey data point to economic anxiety induced by the pandemic as a key mechanism shaping individuals' attitudes towards international economic integration. While the existing literature has found that negative economic sentiment depresses support for international economic integration, economic anxiety appears to be positively related to support for integration in the COVID-19 era. My findings therefore run counter to current arguments about the effect of the pandemic and to expectations based on the existing literature. Gaining a better empirical understanding of the relationship between the pandemic and nationalism in public opinion is particularly important at a time when international cooperation is needed to address both COVID-19 and its economic effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Economics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Elimination of the trade barriers and stimulation of business activity through trade liberalization led to the expansion in the field of the global economy. There are plentiful hesitations about who gains the highest benefit from free trade, especially when it comes to the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between Canada and the European Union. Analogously, the previous mention guides to the dilemma about the trade negotiations and their position in the same agreement in which are the labor standards. Additionally, trade liberalization has influenced the creation of a close link connection between trade, labor, and globalization. This paper focuses on the effects of globalization and trade liberalization with their connection apropos the provisions from CETA; especially with an emphasis on Chapter 23: =Trade and Labour'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving access to domestic and international markets can create large economic benefits. Multimodal infrastructure corridors of road, rail, utilities and communications can improve accessibility by reducing interprovincial and international trade costs. Depending on the geographical area they serve and the modes of transport and types of connections they promote, infrastructure corridors can create trade-offs and synergies between different kinds of economic, social, and environmental outcomes. Yet the implied effects can vary across different regions, population segments and industries. A complete review of a proposed infrastructure corridor package involves a rigorous analysis of all of these potential effects. In this paper, we focus more specifically on quantifying potential gains from reductions in trade costs on Alberta's economy and identify the importance of improved access to lower cost transportation options like rail for select commodities. We find that lowering trade costs substantially increases Alberta's real GDP through its effect on international and interprovincial trade flows. Although interprovincial tariffs on domestic goods are forbidden by the Canadian Constitution, the economic effect of internal non-tariff trade barriers is substantial. Albrecht and Tombe (2016) show that eliminating these interprovincial trade costs would increase Canada's GDP between three to seven per cent. These barriers represent additional costs on Canadian firms and adversely affect their competitiveness in domestic and international markets. High interprovincial trade costs may also pose an additional barrier to entry for foreign firms otherwise willing to enter the Canadian market. As a result of this, Canadian firms end up producing at a less efficient scale and pass the cost of these inefficiencies to consumers. Interprovincial trade costs therefore hurt both producers and consumers. Gains from improved infrastructure are also amplified by the interconnected nature of industries. Output of one industry is often an input for another industry. Shipments cross provincial and national borders as part of these supply-chain relationships which allow for more efficient production but at the same time create additional trade costs on producers. Infrastructure corridors provide one option to lower these trade costs by increasing transportation capacity, creating savings in travel time and distance, creating better quality physical transport infrastructure, simplifying the regulatory and legislative differences across provinces and territories, and improving access to information, to name a few. To quantify the potential effect of increased transportation infrastructure on trade costs, we combine rich data on interprovincial trade flows and shipment-level information on volumes, values, and transportation costs by mode. We empirically estimate the potential for increased rail shipment capacity on shipment costs between various internal trade pairs within Canada. Two key results stand out. First, we find that while distance is an important factor, a higher share of shipments by rail is associated with markedly lower trade costs. Specifically, we find a 10 percentage point increase in the share of value shipped by rail is associated with a 3.2 per cent lower aggregate cost of trade after controlling for commodity, source, and destination of shipments. Second, we also find important differences in the relevance of rail across commodities. We find larger trade costs reductions for coal, mineral products, and fuel oils. The focus on rail is an important one for Alberta since coastal or canal shipping is not a feasible alternative. As a natural next step, we then evaluate the potential gains to Alberta's economy from increased access to internal and international markets that improved infrastructure might provide. We find that lowering trade costs substantially increases Alberta's real GDP through its effect on international and interprovincial trade flows, in both the short run and the long run. The results show that, in the short run, lower trade costs by one per cent increases real GDP by roughly 0.8 per cent and lower trade costs by five per cent increases real GDP by roughly 4.4 per cent. These correspond to approximately $3 billion to $15 billion per year in additional economic activity in Alberta. We find larger gains in the long-run, equivalent to roughly a one per cent increase in real GDP for each one per cent reduction in trade costs. Gains from lower trade costs come primarily through lower cost access to imported inputs and final goods. There are also gains from increased demand by purchases outside Alberta on goods produced by Albertans. This increases real incomes and productivity, which is captured by the increase in real GDP. The combined results of lower import costs and an increase in GDP imply an about six per cent long-run increase in real personal income, equal to an extra $6,423 annually for the median Alberta family. This is a level effect and represents a persistent increase, not a one-time bump. That is, GDP is permanently higher and by extension, annual personal incomes are also permanently higher. Although we don't explore the infrastructure investment options for lowering the trade costs by these levels, the corresponding impacts on real GDP of doing so indicate how high the costs of expanding infrastructure could be while still yielding net benefits to Alberta. An infrastructure corridor could facilitate the expansion of Canada's rail shipment capacity. While many transportation modes could expand within such a corridor -- including roads, pipelines, transmission lines and so on -- our data allow us to specifically quantify the extent to which Alberta's economy could gain from more access to lower cost shipment options like rail. Rail shipment costs are lower than truck transportation when distances are sufficiently long. We find that each one percentage point increase in the share of non-air trade sent by rail is associated with a 0.32 per cent lower trade cost. This implies that if the share shipped by rail increased by 10 percentage points, then trade costs to and from Alberta would, on average, decline by 3.2 per cent. Expanding the rail capacity is particularly valuable for Alberta, since increasing the share of exports shipped by rail by ten 10 percentage points may increase Alberta's GDP by nearly 1.5 per cent in the short-run and over 2.5 per cent in the long-run -- equivalent to over $9 billion per year in economic activity. This is a relatively large increase in economic productivity -- equivalent to roughly $4,500 per household, on average, per year -- and, in addition, it abstracts from other potential sources of gains, such as increased labour migration into the province. The combined increase in GDP and lower import costs from increased rail penetration imply an increase in real personal income. It is more modest here at approximately 3.3 per cent (rather than six per cent), but still very significant and equal to an extra $3,419 annually for the median Alberta family. As before, it is important to note that this is a level effect and represents a persistent increase and permanently higher annual GDP and annual personal incomes. Our analysis is only a first step and explores only one potential effect of expanding infrastructure capacity. Overall, the potential for positive economic effects from multimodal infrastructure corridors is compelling and warrants additional investigation. Governments can play a role by supporting expanded research activities into the feasibility and potential benefits of dedicated multimodal infrastructure corridors in Canada. In addition, though we made progress using detailed shipment-level data, there are shortcomings in coverage and detail that constrain the scope for potential research. Governments should therefore increase the collection and reporting of relevant data on internal trade to facilitate research into the costs producers and consumers face, and the potential gains from internal trade liberalization. Despite the value of expanding research capacity, our analysis points clearly towards the potential gains from internal trade liberalization. Expanded transportation infrastructure capacity can lower trade costs, and therefore governments hoping to expand internal trade should explore means of increasing such capacity, especially the possibility of increased rail shipment capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The implementation of the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (CUSFTA) in January 1989 marked a decisive moment in the rise of neoliberalism as a political project in Canada. While the left, and socialist political economists in particular, played a central role in galvanizing opposition to the agreement and contributed in no small part to the demise of the Conservative government in 1993, the free trade agenda continued to move forward through the 1990s. This Special Issue revisits the history of struggles against free trade in Canada with two aims in mind: first to remember the coalitions through which opposition was organized, the mobilization of socialist critiques by activists and intellectuals, and the key events leading up to the adoption of the agreement. Second, drawing from this history to make sense of how things have changed over the past 30 years, as right-wing nationalists have increasingly taken the lead in opposing free trade, while neoliberals have sought to rebrand their project as 'progressive'. How can those on the left effectively confront the project of free trade today while at the same time challenging both far-right nationalism and neoliberal globalization? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Interventions Économiques is the property of Association d'Economie Politique and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We investigate unconventional monetary policy in a small open economy using shadow interest rates to capture policy at the zero lower bound (ZLB) in a Bayesian structural vector autoregressive model for Canada - a useful case where foreign shocks can be proxied by the U.S. alone. We estimate that during the ZLB period, on average, Canadian unconventional monetary policy increased output by 0.13 percent, while US unconventional monetary policy increased Canadian output by 1.2 percent on average. Results demonstrate the effectiveness of domestic unconventional monetary policy and the strong spillovers from foreign unconventional monetary policy in a small open economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1993, the Canadian federal government ratified the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Prior to ratification, compulsory licensing was eliminated from Canada's Patent Act and intellectual property rights (IPRs) were strengthened. Compulsory licensing allows competitors to produce drugs under patent without the consent of the patent holder, challenging drug monopolies and lowering prices, whereas IPRs lengthen patent protections, shielding patent holders from competition and increasing prices. We perform a critical discourse analysis of key provisions in Chapter 17 of NAFTA in light of industry claims that pharmaceutical innovation requires important investments in research and development, justifying high drug prices. We note that since NAFTA, spending in research and development in Canada has decreased and drug prices have increased, becoming a major barrier to equitable access to critically necessary medications. We argue that by modifying the law, the federal government has wronged the Canadian people by discursively appropriating the language of protecting the public good while in practice legitimizing and consolidating private drug development and production, legalizing exorbitant profits, and excluding well-tested publicly financed alternatives. While NAFTA has now been superseded by the Canada–United States–Mexico Agreement, our analysis offers important lessons moving forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trade is an integral part of the Canadian economy. The main institutional drivers governing trade are bilateral and multilateral agreements outlining permissible trade distorting measures. Since its inception in 1972, Canada's supply management system has remained protected throughout trade negotiations. The system appears, by any economic measure, to be having an increasingly disproportional influence in recent trade negotiations. However, trade agreements serve not only to maximize social surplus, but also to maximize some measure of political welfare. Canada has recently negotiated three prominent trade agreements: the Canada‐European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) came into effect in the latter part of 2017; the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans‐Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) came into effect at the end of 2018; and the Canada‐United States‐Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) could come into effect in 2020. Collectively, these agreements have guaranteed increased market access for fresh and processed dairy products. We build a spatial partial equilibrium model of the Canadian dairy industry consisting of three regions and 10 commodities to assess the individual and cumulative effect of these trade agreements. We pay particular attention to the institutional drivers within today's dairy sector: milk protein isolates; component pricing, including Class 7; and differential demand growth. We find that the aggregate impacts are: (a) a 1.4% decrease in the marginal retail price; (b) a 4.8% decrease in the blended producer price; and (c) an overall increase in social welfare of 7.8%. Worth noting, the decrease in producer surplus varies from 0.7% in the western region to 1.5% in Ontario. Our results may be relevant to future negotiations as well as the publicly promised compensation package for dairy producers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union (EU) has historically sought to influence environmental policies of other countries through multilateral environmental agreements. Under its 7th Environmental Action Plan and Trade for All strategy it now seeks to extend its environmental policy projection through trade; its recent free trade agreements now contain chapters addressing environment and sustainable development. However, by adopting high environmental standards the EU can also advance its own economic interests suggesting an ambiguous motivation. The recent Korean, Japanese and Canadian FTAs and the Mercosur agreements are examined in order to place the extent of this environmental turn within the context of economic advantage. The finding is that while environmental protection provisions in these FTAs may have environmental benefits, they may also serve EU domestic economic interests. This motivation has implications for new FTA negotiations, such as those with New Zealand and Australia, and now the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on International trade vs. multilateral trade agreements (MTAs) and advance the cause of global economic liberalization. Topics include opposition to multilateralism, and longstanding opposition in elements of the Republican and Democratic parties, this trend will likely continue; and shifting production to lower-cost producers.

Canada's trade relations with the UK have been governed by the CETA since the signature of that agreement with the EU in October 2016. Subsequent to the decision of the UK electorate to leave the EU, it became necessary to envisage the creation of a new trade agreement directly between the UK and Canada. Initially, the Government of Canada indicated a willingness to negotiate a new trade agreement with the UK as quickly as possible. But, as the future relationship of the UK to the EU became increasingly uncertain, the Government of Canada decided to hold back until greater clarity could be obtained. As of July 2020, Canada was still waiting. The future trade agreement will reflect the desire of both countries to maintain their long-standing and close relationship. Both have strong interests in trade and investment with the other and both will seek to reinforce these interests. The particular concerns of both countries are outlined in this paper and the outlines of a future trade agreement are set out. In conclusion, the author suggests that it would be in the interests of the UK, rather than seeking simply a bilateral agreement, to seek to negotiate an Atlantic Free Trade Agreement, thereby clarifying its relations not simply with Canada but with all of Europe and North America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three years ago, very few economists would have imagined that one of the newest and fastest growing research areas in international trade is the use of quantitative trade models to estimate the economic welfare losses from dissolutions of major countries' economic integration agreements (EIAs). In 2016, "Brexit" was passed in a UK referendum. Moreover, in 2019, the existence of the entire North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is at risk if the US withdraws—a threat President Trump has made if the proposed US–Mexico–Canada Agreement is not passed by the US Congress. We use state‐of‐the‐art econometric methodology to estimate the partial (average treatment) effects on international trade flows of the six major types of EIAs. Armed with precise estimates of the average treatment effect for a free trade agreement, we examine the general equilibrium trade and welfare effects of the elimination of NAFTA (and for robustness US withdrawal only). Although all the member countries' standards of living fall, surprisingly the smallest economy, Mexico, is not the biggest loser; Canada is the biggest loser. Canada's welfare (per capita income) loss of 2.11% is nearly two times that of Mexico's loss of 1.15% and is nearly eight times the US' loss of 0.27%. The simulations will illustrate the important influence of trade costs—international and intranational—in contributing to the gains (or losses) from an EIA's formation (or elimination). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Problems of Economy is the property of Research Centre for Industrial Developmen Problems of Nas and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Alberta Journal of Educational Research is the property of Alberta Journal of Educational Research and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Comparative federalism contributes to a better understanding of the relationship between ‘Brussels’ and member states in international trade policy. Analysing the understudied field of international procurement liberalization and comparing the European Union (EU), the United States (US) and Canada, the article observes that sub-federal resistance has differed across federations. It finds that the more ‘voice’ sub-federal executives enjoy, the less they ‘exit’ from international commitments. Voice hinges on their representation in federation-wide decision-making (council or senate) and the sectoral nature of vertical relations (collaborative or competitive). In the US senate federation, effective means of joint policy-making have not evolved in this non-coercive field, inciting states to exit. In Canada, increasing collaboration has compensated provinces for senate federalism’s low voice, reducing their resistance. EU ‘second chamber federalism’ proves peculiar for constituent units’ decisive role and its dense and trusting regime of collaboration. Member states’ high voice has encouraged their low resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the Free Trade Agreement signed by the U.S. and Canada on October 4, 1987. The author notes that freer trade leads to more competitive and efficient allocation of resources, whereas bilateral free trade favors the stronger economic unit. Canada has historically sought agreement with the U.S. through multilateral rather than bilateral negotiations because they offset disparities in negotiating power between Canada and its trading partners. The agreement was not considered one of free trade by Canada, who was unable to obtain secure access to the U.S. market and claimed that they had entered into the agreement under false pretenses. Canada was not allowed to invoke the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) due to a stipulation in their initial agreement. Canada's struggle to develop a Canadian cultural industry is discussed.

Bilateral protectionism is the curious form of trade relations that Canada and the United States, the two largest trading partners in the world, have developed over the years. This article analyzes one celebrated trade friction between the two countries. It reviews its development and examines its political underpinnings. The reconstitution of the main actors' motivations and strategies reveals the inner workings of the American Trade protection apparatus and demonstrates its potential for abuse and self- reinforcement. This article also explores the ideological differences between the two countries' perspectives on trade and the questionable benefits of their mutual brand of protectionism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An agreement in 1965 between Canada and the United States to permit free trade in automobile products was accompanied by legislation in both countries providing assistance over a three-year period for workers displaced from their jobs by the trade liberalization. A total of slightly less than 2,000 U.S. auto workers received aid in the form of cash benefits and retraining and relocation allowances under the program. Review of experience with the plan suggests that such adjustment assistance may be preferable to the usual escape-clause provisions of trade agreements since it reduces, rather than maintains, structural rigidities and inefficiencies and complements manpower programs which attempt to improve the adaptability and mobility of labor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the impact of the Canada-Chile Free Trade Agreement (CCFTA) on Canadian exports to Chile, particularly the dynamic effects of the agreement on extensive and intensive margins of trade. Consistent with the literature, we find that the extensive margin effects occurred later than the intensive margin effects and became more prominent in the long-term. Surprisingly, the intensive margin effects died off in the long-term. A theoretical model is constructed to show that our results can arise in a standard setting of intra-industry trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the role assigned to culture in general and to cultural industries and diversity in particular by the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA). Although it pursues further economic liberalization, the arrangement is about much more than trade: its preamble, for instance, contains a reference to the 2005 UNESCO Convention on the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. Nevertheless, the text lacks a general exception clause protecting culture. This paper examines the consolidated CETA text from the perspective of political economy to clarify to what extent this is an opportunity to reconcile rules of free trade with cultural policies aiming to protect and promote the diversity of cultural expressions, especially when the latter derive from cultural industries in both analogue and digital scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article applies the traditional gravity model of trade to explore the effects of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in the context of Canada and, subsequently, draws on the theoretical gravity framework incorporating trade costs derived by Anderson and van Wincoop (2003). It provides a decomposition of the growth of Canada's trade flow with each of its top trading partners. The growth of Canada's bilateral trade with the prospective TPP member countries can be largely attributed to output growth, whereas a vast majority of trade growth with the non-member countries is associated with a reduction in trade costs. Moreover, the elimination of trade barriers after putting into effect free trade agreements considerably diminishes trade costs and raises bilateral trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various identifying restrictions commonly used in small open economy structural vector autoregression (SVAR) models are tested against an SVAR model identified via Markov-switching heteroskedasticity. The SVARs are estimated for three small open economies, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. The most supported model is the one that allows for simultaneity between monetary policy and the real exchange rate without restricting the long-run response of the real exchange rate to a monetary policy shock. The impulse responses to a monetary policy shock and an exchange rate shock identified from such model are consistent with theoretical predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Critics of free trade agreements have argued that they threaten public health, as they eliminate barriers to trade in potentially harmful products, such as sugar. Here we analyze the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), testing the hypothesis that lowering tariffs on food and beverage syrups that contain high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) increased its use in foods consumed in Canada.Methods: We used supply data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to assess changes in supply of caloric sweeteners including HFCS after NAFTA. We estimate the impact of NAFTA on supply of HFCS in Canada using an innovative, quasi-experimental methodology - synthetic control methods - that creates a control group with which to compare Canada's outcomes. Additional robustness tests were performed for sample, control groups and model specification.Results: Tariff reductions in NAFTA coincided with a 41.6 (95% confidence interval 25.1 to 58.2) kilocalorie per capita daily increase in the supply of caloric sweeteners including HFCS. This change was not observed in the control groups, including Australia and the United Kingdom, as well as a composite control of 16 countries. Results were robust to placebo tests and additional sensitivity analyses.Interpretation: NAFTA was strongly associated with a marked rise in HFCS supply and likely consumption in Canada. Our study provides evidence that even a seemingly modest change to product tariffs in free trade agreements can substantially alter population-wide dietary behaviour and exposure to risk factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyze the total factor productivity (TFP) of the pulp and paper industry in three Canadian provinces (British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec) and in three United States (US) states that are contiguously located south of the border (Washington, Illinois, and Maine) over the period of 1971 to 2005. We find that the industry in the three Canadian provinces had much higher TFP growth rates in the era following the Free-Trade Agreement (FTA) signed in 1988. In terms of productivity level, this relative TFP surge allowed the industry in Ontario and British Columbia to move ahead of Illinois and Washington, respectively; however, Quebec trailed further Maine, which is the overall leader in the sample. Our results in this particular case reveal that the Canadian pulp and paper industry did not contribute to the overall Canada-US productivity gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the first "second-generation" free trade agreements that address indirect and non-tariff barriers, the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) is likely to serve as an international model. CETA, however, highlights significant challenges for Canadian federalism in both the negotiation and implementation processes of this and any such future trade agreements. While the inclusion of sub-federal governments allows for provinces/territories to help shape the provisions that fall within their jurisdictions, this paper argues that subsequent challenges arise in conveying a unified Canadian commitment to implement the agreement. Overall, the CETA negotiations demonstrated the significant institutional weaknesses of current federal-provincial/territorial relations with respect to international trade agreements. In the Canadian context, this suggests a need for ''summit federalism'' to ensure that all federal-provincial/territorial governments align their terms and interests and convey a unified commitment to fulfilling Canada's current and future international trade agreements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a measure of effective multifactor productivity (MFP) growth for Canada, the U.S., Australia, Japan and selected EU countries. The measure differs from the standard MFP growth as it measures productivity growth in the production of different types of products instead of by industry and it captures the effect of productivity gains in both foreign and domestic upstream industries. The paper finds that the increase in effective MFP is closely associated with the decline in output price and improvement in international competitiveness. Multifactor productivity growth for small, open economies and for the production of manufacturing, investment and export goods is partly attributable to productivity gains in the production of intermediate inputs in foreign countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]