iPolitics: Restricted transport trade holding NAFTA back, report argues

April 17, 2012 – MLI’s Commentary, Widening Competition in North American Freight Transport: The Impact of Cabotage, is highlighted in an iPolitics column today.

The Commentary, by Stephen Blank and Barry Prentice, argues that North America’s integrated economies are being  held back from reaping the full benefits of NAFTA because of restrictions on trade in transportation services.

“Despite remarkable technological advances in railroads and trucks, the rise of air cargo, and the deregulation of our transport industries, cross-border freight and passenger transport is still less efficient than it should (and could) be,” write Blank and Prentice. “Creating free trade (or at least freer) trade in transportation services, following the liberalization of trade in goods, would be the appropriate step forward.”

The authors provide industry-specific suggestions to reduce transportation restrictions. They also argue for a new forum to consider transportation matters and develop alternative policies: either a revived Canada-United States (or North American) Chamber of Commerce or a North American Commission on Freight Transportation.

To read the full iPolitics column by reporter BJ Siekierski, click here.

To read the full Commentary, Widening Competition in North American Freight Transport: The Impact of Cabotage, click here.

To read the media release, click here.

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  2. Commentary: NAFTA is not about selling goods, it is about making them…together MEDIA RELEASE November 15, 2011, Ottawa, ON – North America is now a deeply integrated,...
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  4. MLI paper on interprovincial trade barriers in the media Since the June 15th release of MLI’s paper written by Ian Blue on interprovincial trade...
  5. iPolitics: A consequential U.S. election? May 5, 2012 – In a new column for iPolitics, MLI’s Jason Clemens discusses why...

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