This introductory course surveys the laws of international trade regulation from a Canadian perspective. The course focuses on the public international law and domestic public law regimes regulating the conduct of international trade to and from Canada, with a particular focus on the multilateral World Trade Organization (WTO) and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Necessarily, an additional focus will be on the relation between the multilateral WTO-GATT order, and the increasing number of preferential trade agreements relevant to Canada such as the Canada-US-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA, renegotiation of the NAFTA), the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), and the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). Particular trade subjects for discussion include: WTO/GATT treaties and institutions; dispute settlement; trade in goods; non-discrimination principles; trade law and non-trade objectives such as environmental protection; subsidies and countervailing duties; anti-dumping measures; trade in services; trade and intellectual property; trade and investment. This course will also discuss the relation of trade to matters of national security, including economic sanctions.
Please note that while no particular background is expected of students in terms of prior legal or other disciplinary knowledge (such as economics), the course is heavy in terms of reading of both legal and policy material, some of which is taken from other fields. Indeed, the course has as an express objective providing all students with some introduction to basic policy aspects of international trade law drawn from economic theory, international relations theory, and international legal theory.
Please also note that for this course, the instructor emphasizes synchronous learning and that, other than for accommodation requirements, there will be no posting of recordings of scheduled class sessions.