Canadian foreign policy : a qualitative analysis of labour mobility in Canada's multilateral, regional, and bilateral trade agreements

Abstract

Economic globalization is increasing the cooperation of states in the international marketplace. Labour mobility is a key area that has proven difficult to liberalize due to its complex nature and sovereign border controls. As a proponent of free trade Canada has sought to establish the rules of trade in multilateral agreements though more recently has turned to bilateral agreements. However, the proliferation of bilateral agreements is seen by economic scholars to frustrate the more efficient multilateral agreements. Comparing the technical language within various agreements reveals that a consistent trend to deepen Canada’s commitments in bilateral arrangements is not found. Rather, bilateral agreements have served to broaden trade globally. This finding suggests that bilateral trade agreements do not complicate the liberalization process to the extent proposed by multilateralists. In this light, bilateral agreements are considered to support Canada’s multilateral objectives by acting as building blocks and creating new trade partners.