The Future Of Canadian Trade Policy: Three Symposia On Canada’S Most Pressing Trade Policy Challenges

The global economy has gone through dramatic and rapid changes over the past 20 years and the current environment is a challenging and evolving landscape for practitioners to manage. Meanwhile, economic research on international trade is also evolving with theory and empirical evidence on a rapidly changing global economy and policy space. What are the key challenges and opportunities facing Canada in a rapidly changing global economy and what are the most important and relevant international policy directions being developed? To examine these and related questions, leading institutions and scholars organized three events where they discussed the direction of Canadian trade policy and trade policy research. The University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy, the University of Ottawa’s CN-Paul M. Tellier Chair on Business and Public Policy in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, the Centre for International Governance Innovation and Global Affairs Canada partnered to bring together leading scholars, stakeholders and trade policy experts to address Canada’s most pressing trade policy issues. Topics included the effect of new technology on trade, progressive trade policy, the rise of protectionism, changes in global supply chains and the role of academia in the formulation of trade policy, among others. The result was the development of new directions for the study and practice of trade policy in Canada. This report summarizes the findings of these meetings to make them accessible to scholars and policy-makers. The programs for each of the three symposiums are provided as an appendix.