Towards a North American Cabotage Regime: A Canadian Perspective

Abstract

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Canada studied the impact of its cabotage legislation thoroughly and opted to provide protection of the domestic shipping market with new legislation in 1992. This paper traces the decision-making process through this period, and the concurrent discussions within NAFTA under negotiations for liberalization of trade in services. Now that Canada has 13 years experience with the existing cabotage legislation, and has adopted a policy to promote the development of short sea shipping, this paper evaluates Canada’s shipping policy options in order to identify if changes are required given the new policy environment.