Dispute Settlement under the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement

KEITH FERGUSON

ABSTRACT

This article provides an analysis of the dispute settlement provisions of the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement. It outlines the features of both the Agreement itself and the legislation implementing the Agreement.

The author argues that the dispute settlement mechanism taken as a whole will effect significant improvements to the present trading regime between the two countries. A comparative analysis suggests that the provisions are at least the equal of and are often superior to those found in both the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and other comparable trade liberalizing agreements in terms of their scope, sophistication and effectiveness. Finally, the author argues that the typical criticisms of the dispute settlement provisions are for the most part unfounded. The author concludes that although there is still much work to be done in negotiating a new system of antidumping and countervailing duty laws, the two nations have taken a number of positive steps toward achieving a stable and predictable trading environment and reducing trade-distorting behaviour.

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Citation: (1989) 47(2) U.T. Fac. L. Rev. 317.
Copyright © 1989. University of Toronto Faculty of Law Review.
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