
James A. Dorn
Over the past few decades, due diligence practices and international trade activities have undergone significant changes. For example, companies have implemented increasingly sophisticated tools to evaluate risks and opportunities associated with corporate acquisitions. At the same time, firms of all sizes have developed complex and very efficient global supply chains. But serious problems persist.
The United States and Canada have achieved a level of international business and economic integration like no other two countries in the world. The U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement of 1989, which evolved into the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), has helped make this a reality. And U.S. and Canadian transportation systems, including international bridges, railways, highways, waterways and airports, also are a major contributing factor.
Canada is one of the most accessible markets in the world. Last year, U.S.-Canadian merchandise trade amounted to almost $600 billion—nearly 100 billion more than the United States’ next largest partner.(1) And bilateral trade in services also was tremendous, at more than $76 billion in 2010, according to the most recent data.(2)
With the season of graduation parties in full swing, I am reminded of my own high school graduation decades ago. This year, my third child recently walked across the stage in cap and gown to receive her diploma. The world she enters is a very different place than what I have experienced.
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