Mark Warner was featured in a Yahoo Finance Canada article on the risks of China retaliating if Canada follows the U.S. tariff lead and imposes a surtax under section 53 of the Customs Tariff on Chinese electric vehicles and battery components. (July 5, 2024) Mr. Warner is a Canadian and U.S. lawyer who has practiced in Toronto, Washington, DC and New York and has advised governments on trade policy and trade negotiations and previously worked on trade and competition issues as counsel in the OECD Trade Directorate and represented the OECD at meetings of the WTO Working Groups on Trade and Competition Policies and Trade and Investment Policies.

Mr. Warner was Legal Director of the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development & Trade and led the Ontario’s legal team for the insolvency / restructuring of General Motors and Chrysler, and various grant and loan agreements to leading automotive and automotive parts companies, including to electric car battery manufacturer, Electrovaya and and a Better Place demonstration centre and electric vehicle charging station network. Mr. Warner also advised the Auto Parts Manufacturing Association on NAFTA renegotiation issues. 

As Legal Director of the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development & Trade and the Ministry of Research & Innovation and advised on economic development, research and innovation grants and loans to corporations, including Huawei. As MEDT Legal Director, he also led Ontario’s legal team for trade negotiations and advised on trade disputes including the Japanese challenge to the Ontario Green Energy Act. Mark has been an adviser to the Governments of Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam on competition and trade policy and at the invitation of the U.S. Department of State lectured in five cities in Japan on international antitrust law and policy. As Assistant Director of the University of Baltimore’s Centre for International and Comparative Law, Mark hired a Chinese scholar to begin a research program on reforming anti-monopoly law in China, one of the first such efforts at the time.