Phil Rourke has 20 years of experience helping governments in all regions of the world in the design, negotiation and implementation of their respective international trade strategies. This includes working directly with senior trade officials from Russia, China, Jamaica, Barbados, Cuba, Costa Rica, Colombia, Peru, Mozambique, Panama, Georgia, Armenia, Ukraine, and Canada. He trained and advised UK Department for International Trade (DIT) officials in the negotiation and implementation of their Government’s transition adoption program post-Brexit. He teaches trade strategy and trade negotiations as a part-time professor with the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa and as a graduate-level lecturer at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University (Ottawa) and the University of the West Indies (Barbados).
If Trade Minister François-Philippe Champagne makes New Year’s resolutions, he’s probably thinking work-wise of trying to find a new approach to implementing his progressive trade agenda. Decoupling this agenda from his trade negotiations strategy and focusing on other trading partners will open up new opportunities with better prospects for success. Canada successfully negotiated a progressive […]
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The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM 2015) in Malta on November 27-29 provides a unique opportunity for the new Liberal government to launch a comprehensive trade and development strategy as a defining feature in its commitment to re-engage in the world. Canada has proportionally more trade and development linkages with Commonwealth countries than any […]
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Authors: Rosemina Z. Nathoo & Phil Rourke Canada Trade Minister François-Philippe Champagne and his officials have been busy. In the last two weeks alone, we saw exploratory free trade talks with China, the launch of consultations on Canada’s relations with Brazil and its Mercosur partners, internal work to modernize an already solid FTA with […]
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Authors: David Luke & Phil Rourke. The arrival of President-elect Donald Trump threw the Liberal Government’s trade strategy off balance. The recent reshuffling of Cabinet and the now laser-like focus on the United States, Canada’s most important commercial relationship, confirmed the need for a reboot. The first casualty of the change in strategy is […]
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