Roadmap for a Renewed U.S.-Canada Partnership — Implications for WTO initiatives

On February 23, 2021 President Biden and Prime Minister Trudeau had a virtual meeting to review a wide range of topics and released an agreed “Roadmap for a Renewed U.S.-Canada Partnership”. Major topics addressed included (1) combating COVID-19, (2) building back better (i.e., economic recovery after the pandemic), (3) accelerating climate ambitions, (4) advancing diversity and inclusion, (5) bolstering security and defense and (6) building global alliances. A number of these topics are relevant to the work of the World Trade Organization (ongoing or possible). See Roadmap for a Renewed U.S. Canada Partnership, February 23, 2021,https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/02/23/roadmap-for-a-renewed-u-s-canada-partnership/. This post reviews briefly some of the issues in the roadmap that resonate more broadly in a global trade context.

Combating COVID-19

For example, on combating COVID-19, several of the paragraphs in the roadmap review working together to help ensure equitable access to vaccines through COVAX. Whether sufficient vaccines can be made available to low- and middle-income countries is a matter of concern to many WTO Members including some who have been pushing for waiving TRIPS Agreement obligations during the pandemic. Many developed countries have viewed there being adequate flexibility within the TRIPS Agreement to address the present pandemic and have pointed to the collective efforts of the WHO, GAVI and CEPI in setting up COVAX to procure billions of doses of vaccines both for countries needing assistance and for other countries wanting to acquire vaccines through COVAX. The big issue for COVAX has been adequate funding. The U.S. is donating $2 billion in the near term and another $2 billion over the rest of 2021 and 2022. Canada has also made pledges of support to COVAX. Thus, the roadmap is both supportive of global efforts to get vaccines to countries in need and likely supportive of opposing efforts to waive TRIPS rights and obligations during the pandemic. Some excerpts from the combating COVID-19 section are copied below.

“The top priority of the President and the Prime Minister is to end the COVID-19 pandemic. They agreed to strengthen comprehensive and cross-sectoral efforts to control the pandemic, collaborate on public health responses, and build resilience against future outbreaks.

‘The Prime Minister and the President committed to working closely together to defeat the virus, including by surging the health and humanitarian response to the global pandemic, responding to new variants, following expert advice, and supporting global affordable access to and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines, including through the COVAX Facility.

“The leaders emphasized their strong support for the multilateral institutions that are on the front lines of COVID-19 response, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and UN development agencies, and committed to rapidly fulfilling national pledges to COVAX.”

While not addressed in the roadmap document, both Canada and the U.S. at the WTO have been supportive of not imposing restrictions on agricultural exports and through the G-20 have been supportive of limiting the role of export restraints on medical goods. There is discussion in the building back better section of strengthening “Canada-U.S. supply chain security” which may have implications for whether some actions relevant to medical goods are adopted that will diversify supply or encourage more production within the U.S. and Canada.

The interest by the United States under the Biden Administration in supporting multilateral organizations like the WTO may also suggest that the U.S. will now be more amenable to working with the Ottawa Group (of which Canada is a member) on the Trade and Health Initiative that was introduced last December. See Government of Canada, Minister Ng announces tabling of Ottawa Group’s Trade and Health Initiative at WTO General Council, December 17, 2020, https://www.canada.ca/en/global-affairs/news/2020/12/minister-ng-announces-tabling-of-ottawa-groups-trade-and-health-initiative-at-wto-general-council.html (“Through this Trade and Health Initiative, Canada and the other 12 Ottawa Group member nations are calling for further cooperation among all WTO members to strengthen global supply chains and facilitate the flow of essential medicines and medical supplies, including vaccines, amid the current crisis. The Trade and Health Initiative identifies a range of actions that members are encouraged to adopt. These include implementing trade-facilitating measures in the areas of customs and services, limiting export restrictions, temporarily removing or reducing tariffs on essential medical goods, and improving transparency overall.”); December 18, 2020, The WTO ends the year with General Council and Dispute Settlement Body meetings, https://currentthoughtsontrade.com/2020/12/18/the-wto-ends-the-year-with-general-council-and-dispute-settlement-body-meetings/; November 27, 2020, The Ottawa Group’s November 23 communication and draft elements of a trade and health initiative, https://currentthoughtsontrade.com/2020/11/27/the-ottawa-groups-november-23-communication-and-draft-elements-of-a-trade-and-health-initiative/.

Building back better (recovery from the pandemic)

Much of the section on building back better addresses the collective needs to support groups that have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic including “women, youth, underrepresented groups and indigenous peoples.” Assistance to such groups and to small and medium-sized enterprises is an important component of building back better. It also reflects present WTO focus on helping women and micro-, small- and medium-sized businesses better participate in the global economy and in international trade in particular. Actions by Canada and the U.S. will be pursued in part under existing commitments within the USMCA but also will be supportive of WTO initiatives and UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Other agreed steps by Canada and the U.S. in this section deal with building supply chain for battery development and production which is consistent with the leaders’ objective of advancing reductions in greenhouse gases. The U.S. and Canada also encourage “international regulatory cooperation” to enhance “economic competitiveness” “while maintaining high standards of public health, safety, labor, and environmental protection.” As reviewed below, trade and climate change/environment are likely to be of greater interest within the WTO moving forward. The WTO SPS and TBT Agreements also encourage international regulatory cooperation to facilitate trade. Thus, U.S.-Canada actions are supportive of existing rights and obligations and leading the way on future needs.

Accelerating Climate Ambitions

With the U.S. having rejoined the Paris Agreement since President Biden took office, the U.S. position is now more aligned with Canada and with that of the European Union in terms of needing “to increase the scale and speed of action to address the climate crisis and better protect nature.” Of particular interest is the commitment to action against countries who don’t take adequate action to reduce greenhouse gases .

“The President also restated his commitment to holding polluters accountable for their actions. Both the President and the Prime Minister agreed to work together to protect businesses, workers and communities in both countries from unfair trade by countries failing to take strong climate action.”

The language in the roadmap suggests that the U.S. and Canada will be interested in exploring options similar to those being prepared by the European Union on a duty or tax on imported products produced with higher levels of greenhouse gases to prevent leakage. The incoming Director-General has acknowledged that Members are looking at how to make trade help address the climate crisis. See APPOINTMENT OF THE NEXT DIRECTOR-GENERAL, STATEMENT OF THE DIRECTOR-GENERAL ELECT DR. NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA TO THE SPECIAL SESSION OF THE WTO GENERAL COUNCIL, 15 February 2021, JOB/GC/250 (16 February 2021)(para. 1.14, “1.14. We should also work to ensure that the WTO best supports the green and circular economy and addresses more broadly the nexus between trade and climate change. Trade and environmental protection can be mutually reinforcing, both contributing to sustainable development. It will be important for Members to reactivate and broaden the negotiations on environmental goods and services. This would help promote trust and encourage Members to explore further ways in which trade can contribute positively to an improved climate. Care must, however, be taken to ensure that any disciplines are not used arbitrarily or as a disguised restriction on trade, and that they take into account the need for developing countries to be assisted to transition to the use of greener and more environmentally friendly technologies.”); February 16, 2021, Special Session of the General Council at WTO appoints Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as the seventh Director-General, https://currentthoughtsontrade.com/2021/02/16/special-session-of-the-general-council-at-wto-appoints-dr-ngozi-okonjo-iweala-as-the-seventh-director-general/.

Building Global Alliances

While much broader than just trade, the commitment to multilateralism announced by President Biden and Prime Minister Trudeau included “firm commitment to the United Nations, G7 and G20, as well as NATO, the WTO, and the Five Eyes community.” Both Canada and the United States support significant reform at the WTO. One can expect closer collaboration between the U.S. and Canada on many reform initiatives at the WTO.

This section of the roadmap also addresses the need to jointly address China. “They also discussed ways to more closely align our
approaches to China, including to address the challenges it presents to our collective interest and to the international rules-based order. This includes dealing with its coercive and unfair economic practices, national security challenges, and human rights abuses, while cooperating with China on areas where it is in our interest, such as climate change.” WTO reform to be meaningful will have to have elements that will address the noncoverage of various actions by state-capital countries like China that distort global trade flows, create massive excess capacity, force technology transfer, limit transparency and market access in fact. While some efforts can be through consultations by the U.S. with other trading partners like Canada and the EU, multilateral reform is also critical for the functioning of the global trading system.

Conclusion

President Biden’s efforts are restoring strong relationships with our neighbors and renewed engagement with multilateral organizations has been apparent during the first five weeks of his Presidency. Yesterday’s virtual meeting between President Biden and Prime Minister Trudeau reflects the strong bonds between the U.S. and Canada. The roadmap presents areas of joint interest and future activity to deepen our close partnership. The roadmap also has a number of signals of likely U.S.-Canada cooperation in global trade and on WTO reform which should attract support from a number of other major trading partners at the WTO.

The roadmap and joint press statements are linked below:

To view the original blog post, please click here