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Although Canada has been busy negotiating trade and investment agreements over the past decade, few of the negotiations yielded agreements and those that did tended to be with relatively small countries. This changed with the signing of the Canada-Korea Free Trade Agreement and the agreement in principle of the CETA. These so-called “new generation” trade agreements are dramatically changing the nature of trade liberalization and include trade and investment, trade in services, procurement and harmonizing regulations – that have required the direct involvement of sub-national governments. The active trade negotiations are one aspect of Canada’s Global Markets Action Plan designed to guide Canadian trade and investment policy forward. Meanwhile, the global landscape is rapidly changing and it is extremely important to examine how to best implement the goals of the action plan.

This symposium will bring together leading thinkers in trade and investment policy and business to discuss the key issues in implementing Canada's Global Markets Action Plan, and will provide analysis on how to best achieve the goals set out in the Plan, within this context. Concrete and practical recommendations on implementing Canada’s commerce strategy will be presented during the event.