CBA Record July-August 2018

CBA Market Insider CBA Market Insider e-Newsletter highlights the latest Chicago Bar Association marketing and sponsorship offerings, along with the recent successes of the businesses and law firms that support our legal community. Get your copy at http://eepurl.com/dga-5f between foreign investors and states. The United States has expressed an interest in dropping this Chapter from the Agreement or in making it optional for members. The speakers discussed the actual practice of these arbitrations, how they compare to other bilateral investment treaties, and the options for dispute settlement in the absence of NAFTA (or in the event of a NAFTA without a Chapter 11). The speakers also discussed the confluence of arguments against Chapter 11 from the political left (“No special rights for corpo- rations!”) and from the right (“Don’t give away U.S. sovereignty!”). The last main panel covered issues relat- ing to the nuts and bolts of how NAFTA affects daily business operations. Kevin Gray, Acting Deputy of the Trade Law Bureau of the Government of Canada, compared the NAFTA rules on govern- ment procurement to rules under theWTO and U.S. domestic law. Other speakers discussed the use of binational arbitration to resolve disputes over the administration of domestic antidumping and countervail- ing duty law. Finally, the panel dove into the current controversy over what level of North American and U.S.-specific con- tent should be required for a Mexican- or Canadian-made automobile to qualify for duty-free entry to the U.S. The two days ended with a look back at the impact of NAFTA and an effort to look forward. The closing panel emphasized the importance of NAFTA to the integrated North American economy. However, the panel was careful to focus attention on the need for all three governments to provide meaningful support to the workers and others who are negatively impacted by changes in the economy brought on by globalization.

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The Chicago Bar Association

                                               

Larger Impact While the content of this program was excellent, the larger impact may be the renewed relationship between the two Bars and their respective practitioners. On that front, the group met with Judge Mulroy who lead a lively lunch discussion on the future of the practice of law in both cities. On the second day, Peter MacKay, a partner in the Toronto office of Baker & McKenzie and the former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, spoke on the need for our two countries to reaffirm our national commitments to friendship and cooperation. As historical examples, he used the experience of the people of Gander, Newfoundland who hosted and cared for nearly 7,000 mostly American travelers stranded in the wake of the September 11 attack on New York and the response of American volunteers rush- ing to Halifax in 1917 after a munitions ship exploded in the harbor destroying much of the city, killing and injuring more than 10,000 people. Reminded of both the role of lawyers and of individual acts in the international arena, many of the participants expressed an interest in pursuing those goals at another similar meeting to be held in Montreal.

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