The fun continues

While Canada's challenges to the U.S. completely fail to change anything in the longer term, UPS is arguing its own challenge which could result in major changes at Canada Post:

UPS, the world's largest package delivery firm, first filed a claim for $160 million US against the Canadian government in April 2000 under the North American Free Trade Agreement. A decision from the tribunal could take more than a year once the hearings end.

Other American firms have successfully challenged Canadian policy decisions.

But the UPS case represents the first time Ottawa is being pressured to withdraw from an established government program or service, said Joseph Zebrowski, spokesman for the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, representing 56,000 people...

One of the great questions in the operation of NAFTA has always been how far the tribunals would go in limiting the freedom of action of Canada's Crowns. And while those results haven't been too harmful so far, the UPS action could both undermine Canada Post's current financial standing, and open the door to future claims any time a Crown doesn't go out of its way to avoid making use of the efficiencies available to it.

Based on the article, Canada seems confident about its position in the UPS claim. We can only hope that confidence is justified...since if it isn't, the same agreement that's so often failed to secure our access to the U.S. market could do serious damage to our own institutions.