Mark Warner was interviewed on BNNBloomberg about the United Kingdom pausing bilateral trade talks with Canada over an impasse over Canadian dairy quotas and UK beef standards and a looming deadline for rules of origin for autos parts. (January 26, 2024) Mr. Warner is a Canadian and U.S. lawyer who has practiced in Toronto, Washington, D.C., New York and Brussels and has advised governments on trade policy and trade negotiations and has previously worked on trade and competition issues as counsel in the OECD Trade Directorate, where he participated in the negotiations of the Multilateral Agreement on Investment and represented the OECD at meetings of the WTO Working Group on Trade and Competition Policy and the Working Group on Trade and Investment.
Mr. Warner was Legal Director of the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development & Trade and advised Ontario in the CETA negotiations, including with respect to Trade in Alcoholic Beverages and Monopolies and State Enterprises and on IP, Patent Litigation and Drug Reimbursement issues, Cross Border Trade in Services; Temporary Entry and Stay of Natural Persons for Business Purposes, Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications, and Regulatory Cooperation. As Legal Director also led Ontario’s legal team for the negotiation of the Canada-U.S. Agreement on Government Procurement, advised on trade disputes (including the Green Energy Act and softwood lumber) and various NAFTA Chapter 11 investor-state arbitration matters.
As a partner in a leading boutique law firm in Brussels specializing in European and international law, Mr. Warner negotiated with European Commission Competition officials the first ever notified merger of companies from accession countries (Polish and Czech oil companies) following EU ion in 2004.