scholarly journals Canada's National Questions, Free Trade and the Left

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Kellogg

It is now more than 30 years since the launch of the bilateral:anada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (CUFTA), predecessor to the multilateral North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the (now abandoned) Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). For a generation, these "free trade" initiatives provided an important part of the framework in which political movements developed in Canada, engendering debates and controversies which continue to this day. When a new moment of trade politics emerged with Donald Trump's challenge to NAFTA, some veterans from those earlier anti-free trade battles were unable to see the new, white nationalist terrain upon which Trump was operating. This article - organized principally around the author's own engagement with the anti-free trade movements of the 1980s - suggests that this inability to see clearly the new context of anti-free trade politics was rooted in the incomplete and contradictory left-nationalist theory which underpinned most anti-free trade politics of that earlier era. The article suggests that while there are national questions in Canada - in particular those associated with Indigenous peoples and with Quebec - the attempt to articulate a parallel "national question" in Canada as a whole has proven to be impossible.

2006 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
KERRY CHASE

The GATT treaty's loophole for free trade areas in Article XXIV has puzzled and deceived prominent scholars, who trace its postwar origins to US aspirations to promote European integration and efforts to persuade developing countries to endorse the Havana Charter. Drawing from archival records, this article shows that in fact US policymakers crafted the controversial provisions of Article XXIV to accommodate a trade treaty they had secretly reached with Canada. As a result, the free trade area exemption was embedded in the GATT–WTO regime, even though neither the Havana Charter nor the US–Canada free trade agreement was ever ratified. Theoretically, the case is an important example of how Cold War exigencies altered the policy ideas of US officials.


1993 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 415-446 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daphna Kapeliuk-Klinger

On January 1, 1989, the State of Israel abolished the remaining customs duties and charges, having equivalent effect on imported products originating in the European Communities (hereinafter the Community), in accordance with the Free Trade Agreement (hereinafter the FT Agreement) concluded on May 11, 1975, between the Community and Israel.The FT Agreement, which sets out to create a free trade area in the territories of the contracting parties, was the result of the previously existing relationship between the Community and Israel, as well as the emergence of the Global Mediterranean Policy within the Community. The FT Agreement attempts to foster economic activity by promoting expansion of trade and cooperation in reciprocal areas of interest, thus creating fair competition and contributing to the development and expansion of world trade.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 57-76
Author(s):  
Ifeanyi Ezeonu

Abstract On March 21, 2018, the African Continental Free Trade Agreement was signed in Kigali, Rwanda by an overwhelming majority of African states. This Agreement, which was designed to create a free-trade area across the African continent, came into force on May 30, 2019, following its ratification by twenty-two African states as provided for in the agreement. The resultant free-trade area is intended to integrate African markets, stimulate industrialization, and engender the economic transformation of the continent through the promotion of free movement of persons, capital, goods, and services across the continent. This article discusses the key challenges facing the new free-trade zone and the prospects of the trade zone for African industrialization and economic development in the twenty-first century.


2005 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle S. Viegas

At the 1994 Summit of the Americas, leaders of democratic nations in the Western Hemisphere committed to establishing a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) by January 2005. The Declaration of Principles resulting from that Summit called for building on “existing sub-regional and bilateral arrangements in order to broaden and deepen hemispheric economic integration and to bring the agreements together.” Although ambitious, this endeavor was undertaken during a decade marked by an unprecedented proliferation of trade agreements. In 1991, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay agreed to initiate the formation of a common market now known as the MERCOSUR. Then in 1994, Canada, Mexico and the United States signed the North American Free Trade Agreement which replaced the United States-Canada Free Trade Agreement. Later that year, nations around the world formalized the existing General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, creating the World Trade Organization. In 1997, the Andean Community of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela formalized its plans to establish a common market. Members of the Caribbean Community and Common Market also agreed in several protocols to further their economic and social integration. During the 1990's, numerous other trade agreements were negotiated, and their development continues at the same rapid pace today.


2021 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-256
Author(s):  
Colin Koh-King Wong ◽  
Venus Khim-Sen Liew ◽  
Mohammad Affendy Arip

This article adopts the augmented versions of the Gravity Model to examine the effects of the signing of the ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA) on the bilateral aggregate trades. Specifically, ACFTA dummy variables are incorporated in the basic model is to estimate the direction and magnitude of the ACFTA effects. A total of 79 trading partners of ASEAN member countries plus China were examined in this article. The study finds that the Gross Domestic Product, population, natural endowment, distance, and common language are the main determining factors of the bilateral trade for ASEAN member countries and their trading partners. Estimated results from this Augmented Gravity Model showed that ACFTA had increased the bilateral aggregate trades not only between intra-bloc member countries but also intra-bloc and extra-bloc countries. With this positive finding, ASEAN and China could consider expanding their free trade area to a broader regional perspective, enhancing economic growth and reducing regional inequality.


2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 113
Author(s):  
M. Anaam Hashmi ◽  
Fahad Al-Eatani ◽  
Fareed Shaikh

The need for a free trade agreement between the European Union (EU) and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is analyzed in this research project. Trade flows between these two economic blocs are studied to understand the importance of trade for these respective blocs. Failure of the free trade agreement negotiation is attributed to the lack of economic focus and the EU demands to improve human rights in GCC member countries. Based on the secondary sources and data analyses, the primary interest of both economic blocs is to enhance geopolitical influence and not boasting bilateral trade. Despite recent failures, both sides are still committed to increased partnership in the future. It is concluded that an EU-GCC free trade area may be essential for increased cooperation in economic, as well as geopolitical, security, environmental, and cultural arenas.


2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 47-56
Author(s):  
Raudah Aghnia Ahda ◽  
Made Siti Sundari ◽  
Idfi Setyaningrum

This study aims to determine whether there is different value between exportand import performance before ACFTA and after ACFTA by developing hypothesis from the previous studies. To test the proposed hypothesis, this Study employed the independent samples t-test with data from the World Bank database. The case study was carried out with concern on textile business between Indonesia and China. The results indicate that the exports value has different mean following the free trade agreement. Similar result occurs at the import value of textile from China toIndonesia.


2000 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor Bulmer-Thomas

Negotiations between the European Union and MERCOSUR aim to establish the first free trade agreement ever between two customs unions. Among the potential obstacles are compliance with World Trade Organization rules, treatment of “sensitive” products, and competition from the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas. This analysis reviews the economic background on both sides, the motivation, and the prospects for success, along with the agreement’s potential impact on the largest third party, the United States.


2021 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mmiselo Freedom Qumba

ABSTRACT Over the past few years, the international Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanisms have been confronted with an unprecedented level of scrutiny, and the system's legitimacy is being questioned by both developed and developing countries alike. This article presents a proposal for the adoption of the old customary international law rule of exhaustion of local remedies in the upcoming Investment Protocol of the African Contin en tal Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). It observes that the ISDS mechanism that will be developed under the AfCFTA framework is likely to be shaped by the legitimacy crisis in investment treaty arbitration and ongoing global debates about the reform of the ISDS mechanisms. In particular, the ISDS debate in the African region will continue to characterise and potentially derail the negotiations of the AfCFTA Protocol on Investment. The main contention is that adopting the exhaustion of local remedies under the AfCFTA Protocol on Investment before recourse is had to the ISDS is arguably the single reform with the greatest potential to foster a balanced investment dispute resolution mechanism and reduce political opposition to ISDS while still providing investors with access to ISDS when domestic remedies are inadequate. The article finally proposes a drafting suggestion for the adoption of the exhaustion of local remedies rule into the ISDS provision of the AfCFTA Protocol on Investment. Keywords: Exhaustion of local remedies; African Continental Free Trade Area; Investment Protocol; ISDS; African courts.


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