Canada's foreign ownership policy in an era of trade in telecommunications services

grantor: University of TorontoLike a stone dropped into an early-morning pond, the birth of a new world trade order has sent ripples through many once carefully guarded economic sectors. Foremost among these is telecommunications, where the recent inclusion of basic telecommunications to the World Trade Organization (WTO) framework has been greeted both as a gesture of boundless promise, and a harbinger of cultural apocalypse. Foreign ownership restrictions were among the most controversial of issues at the WTO negotiations on basic telecommunications. Indeed, they continue to be a sore point between Canada and its major trading partners. Despite a general trend toward greater market access in the developed and developing worlds, Canada has refused to relax its discriminatory stance on ownership. The result is a policy approach at odds with the spirit of the multilateral trade framework, the needs and interests of Canadian corporate and residential consumers, and the economic well-being of the country as a whole.LL.M