Canada’s prosperity depends on international commerce, but recent political shifts are threatening the global trading system. Protectionist sentiment has risen, most importantly from our top trading partner, the United States. Canada’s quest to diversify trade through the Trans-Pacific Partnership was stopped in its tracks shortly after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, and that deal seems moribund, at least for the time being. Now Canada’s negotiators are embroiled in contentious and important talks over the future of the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA. The global outlook for trade has changed, and so too, perhaps, must our trade policies. In this Policy Options special feature, a wide variety of experts on the subject will look through different lenses at world trade today — topics range from making trade more inclusive, the role of global value chains and the fate of multilateral organizations, to what’s at stake in agreements such as NAFTA.
Photo: Leaders of the G-20 states attend a working session at the G-20 summit in Hamburg, northern Germany, Saturday, July 8, 2017 (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, pool)
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