A Need-To-Know Guide On IP In The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement

On October 1, 2018, the Government of Canada announced agreement on a deal for a modernized NAFTA, to be called the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). Early reports are that Canada fared well in the agreement overall, that the Canadian auto industry was favoured over dairy farmers, and that Canada made significant concessions in the area of intellectual property. This assessment of the IP outcome is fair, although it is noteworthy that Canada had already made several of the same IP concessions in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). An assessment more favourable to the Government of Canada would be that Canada resisted the United States' more outlandish IP demands and sacrificed positions only on a few industry-specific items to drive a larger welfare-enhancing deal.