User:Oceanflynn/sandbox/Free trade timeline

Free trade timeline

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 * 2018 NAFTA re-negotiations: NAFTA re-negotiations began in August, 2017 following demands made by President Donald Trump. The round of talks in May, 2018 were suspended when both Mexico and Canada rejected U.S. demands.

The third round took place in Ottawa in September 2017 with discussions on Intellectual Property (IP) with Canada and the U.S. holding widely diverging viewpoints. The Office of the United States Trade Representative under U.S. Trade Representative Robert E. Lighthizer have kept Canada under their Section 306 Watch List because of their "deep" concerns about "in transit" or "transshipped" "pirated and counterfeit goods". The U.S. is "deeply troubled" by the "broad interpretation of an ambiguous education-related exception to copyright". The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) published a special report in September 2017, "NAFTA 2.0 and Intellectual Property Rights" in which the authors, composed of a "community of scholars and practitioners", addressed the "requirements of a modernized NAFTA Chapter 17". They noted that Canada meets "international obligations when it comes to respect for copyright and patents and has largely addressed long-standing U.S. demands regarding additional reforms".

The next round of talks is scheduled for July 26 in Washington.


 * 2006 Agricultural products comprise 98% of total U.S. exports to Cuba. "Leading Cuban exports include sugar, nickel, tobacco, fish, medical products, citrus, and coffee. Cuba’s leading buyers were Canada (19 percent), Netherlands (19 percent), China (16 percent), Bermuda (14 percent), and Spain (5 percent)."


 * 2002 The U.S. Farm Bill  established the U.S. Sugar Program, a federal commodity support program, with a mandate to maintain a minimum price for sugar beets and sugarcane in the 2002-2007 season.

*1992 US sanctions on Cuba were maintained to put pressure on Cuba to improve human rights in Cuba and to democratize.


 * 1960 As a result of U.S. sanctions following the Cuban Revolution when Cuba nationalized American-owned Cuban oil refineries offering no compensation, Cuba's sugar quota to the U.S. decreased by 95% in 1959 from a quota of 3,119,655 tons to 0 in 1960 A year later, Cuba's sugar quota was reduced to zero when President Eisenhower issued Proclamation 3383. This substantially affected Cuba's total exports as Cuba was one of the world's leading sugar exporters at the time.


 * 1948 U.S. Sugar Act