If U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a> imposes tariffs<\/a> on Canadian goods as he\u2019s repeatedly threated to do, experts say Canada has a strong case to challenge it under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico free trade agreement.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The question, though, is how quickly any decision may come through the process \u2014 and more importantly, whether the U.S. would respect any decisions from the outcome.<\/p>\n \u201cA rules-based system is only as good as the willingness of the government who\u2019s subject to it, to comply with it,\u201d said Wendy Wagner, a partner at Gowling WLG.<\/p>\n The free trade agreement is a nation-to-nation agreement, so there\u2019s no one else to appeal to if a country decides not to respect a decision.<\/p>\n America\u2019s past performance on adhering to trade decisions has been mixed. Areas of contention include complicated measures such as figuring out how much foreign content is in an automobile or the long-running softwood lumber dispute.<\/p>\n Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n What Trump has threatened, though \u2014 blanket 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods, with the exception of 10 per cent tariffs on energy \u2014 doesn\u2019t contain much grey area, said Wendy.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not arguing around the edges here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere couldn\u2019t be anything more offensive to a free trade agreement than a 25 per cent across-the-board tariff on all the products that originate from that country. It\u2019s the most blatantly antithetical measure that you could impose.\u201d<\/p>\n
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