Data Is Not Treaty Ready — and the CUSMA Is Not Data Ready

This note comments on the economic impacts of the CUSMA, the implications for business certainty, and its readiness for the knowledge based and data-driven economy. Relative to the status quo, the CUSMA impacts negatively on economic efficiency and welfare, and leaves unaddressed the major new sources of uncertainty for business concerning market access in North America. While the CUSMA has been billed as a twenty-first-century agreement, the twenty-first century for which the CUSMA was designed is effectively already over. Given the regulatory ferment currently underway, data is not treaty ready — and the CUSMA is not data ready.