Advantages and Disadvantages for Canada of Multilateral, Regional and Bilateral Trade Agreements

Canada is at an historic juncture with regard to trade policy, deciding on ratification of the Canada-EU and Trans-Pacific Partnership agreements, having seen the multilateral option effectively removed at the WTO Ministerial at Nairobi in 2015, and facing constraints in making additional economic gains from serial bilateral agreements. The key issues facing Canada revolve around the rules regime and in particular the intellectual property rules promoted by the mega-regional agreements. This brief argues that Canada needs to do the math on the agreements, and to urgently fashion a trade and innovation regime to compete in the age of innovation.