Canada’s Progressive Trade Agenda

This Commentary reviews the PTA concept, its motivation, the specific elements that comprise it, the likely efficacy of these measures in addressing the factors thought to be driving populism, and the extent to which the PTA can shape Canada’s trade agreements in general and the renegotiated NAFTA in particular. [...] Most broadly, the PTA has been pitched as a For a trade-dependent economy like Canada’s, a response to the narrative that links the rise of anti- threat to the trading system represents a threat to globalization populism to the concentration of trade its economic strategy and ability to deliver on non- gains at the top of the income scale, while leaving economic policy goals. [...] The trade-off is also clear: the chapters in the body of the agreement, signalling stronger the PTA measures, the more they serve a greater commitment to and/or force of the as a countermeasure to the forces driving anti- measures. [...] Its influence then lies for Multinational Enterprises, and the in terms of norm-setting and in the outcomes requirement under those guidelines to establish a from the mandatory cooperation exercise and the National Contact Point; work of the mandatory committee. [...] Thus, an Indigenous chapter could of Appeal, determined that there was no duty include a reaffirmation of the UN Declaration on on the government to consult the Hupacasath the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the American First Nation prior to ratification, as the potential Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.