The CBA International Law Section presents Intersections Series 3:

Intersection of International Trade Law and Aboriginal Law: Key concepts and recent developments

September 12, 2018 | 12:00 PM to 1:30 PM Eastern
Teleconference

Nation to nation trade between Indigenous people of North America predates all of Canada’s foreign trade obligations. Yet, with the advent of a more open world and the formalization of trade agreements between nation-states, how does Canada develop trade policy that balances the obligations enshrined in trade agreements with Canada’s constitution, which recognizes and affirms treaty and Aboriginal rights? This third session in the Intersect Series explores the issues surrounding this topic and provides practitioners who may not be versed in either topic an opportunity to learn more about how this dynamic is at play in trade negotiations, government procurement and enhanced dialogue between the Government of Canada and Indigenous peoples.

This next iteration of the Intersect series will address questions such as:

• Modern Trade Agreements and Indigenous Peoples: NAFTA and other ongoing and future trade negotiations – what practitioners need to know?
• What is inter-tribal trade and why is it important?
• The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) – what is it and how is it significant to our discussion?
• Indigenous peoples and recent international trade related jurisprudence – Huspacsath First Nation v. Canada, Grand River Enterprises Six Nations v. United States. Implications of these and recent SCC decisions – Tsilhqot’in v. British Columbia and others. What are the implications?
• Canada’s “Comprehensive and Progressive” trade agenda – How are Indigenous peoples part of the policy? What further work needs to be done to better integrate the concerns expressed by Indigenous peoples about International Trade and Investment agreements?
• What is happening in global context, what are the views with Canada’s NAFTA partners as well as with Canada’s other trade partners?
   

Speakers

Robert Brookfield, Director General, Trade Law Bureau, Government of Canada

Wayne Garnons-Williams,Chair of the International Intertribal -Trade and Investment Organization; Senior Lawyer, Garwill Professional Law Corporation; Research Fellow with the University of Oklahoma College of Law focusing on Indigenous trade law and indigenous law and economic development

Kendal Netmaker, Entrepreneur from Sweetgrass First Nation, Saskatchewan and author of “Driven to Succeed: From Poverty to Podium"

Risa Schwartz, Sole practitioner specializing in the intersections of international trade law, international environmental law and Indigenous rights

Michael Woods, Senior partner, Woods, LaFortune LLP, with broad experience in international business and expertise in all aspects of international trade law