Tag Archives: COVID-19

Mark Warner was featured on the CBC Weekend Business Panel talking about the G7 global corporate tax deal, Air Canada pandemic executive bonuses, diversity on Canadian corporate boards and GDP growth rates. (June 5, 2021) Mr. Warner is a Canadian and U.S. lawyer who has practiced in Toronto, Washington, D.C., New York and Brussels has advised governments on trade policy and trade negotiations. As counsel at the OECD Trade Directorate, he advised on harmful tax competition issues and worked on other trade and competition issues. As Legal Director for the Ontario Ministry of Research & Innovation, Mr. Warner was responsible for establishing the Ontario Capital Growth Corporation (OCGC) and providing corporate governance legal advice and secretarial support to its Board of Directors, as well as to the Board of Directors of the Ontario Immigrant Investor Corporation (OIIC), and other agencies administered by the Ministries.

As Legal Director of the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development & Trade, Mr. Warner provided strategic legal advice with respect to the Ontario’s economic development, research and innovation grants and loans to corporations and and led the Province’s legal team for the insolvency / restructuring of General Motors and Chrysler. He is co-author of a leading Canadian trade law treatise, has also published numerous articles and has been invited to speak at conferences around the world.

Mr. Warner’s work with the airline industry includes: successfully coordinating multijurisdictional merger filings in the airport services industry in Canada, the United States, United Kingdom and Germany; coordinating the merger notification and review of the acquisition of a regional chartered air carrier and a national scheduled air carrier in the United States; and representing a client in connection with an EU competition complaint against a dominant air carrier regarding restrictions on both passengers and travel agents that require the sequential use of airline tickets.

Mark Warner was interviewed on Newstalk1010 about the constitutional challenges to the Canadian Government quarantine program in response to the COVID-19 pandemic for visitors and Canadians returning to Canada. (June 2, 2021) 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. Mr. Warner was Legal Director of the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development & Trade and advised Ontario in the Canada-EU Trade Agreement (CETA) negotiations advised on matters including: Cross Border Trade in Services; Temporary Entry and Stay of Natural Persons for Business Purposes; Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications; and Regulatory Cooperation. Mr. Warner also advised on procurement issues in the Canada-U.S. Agreement on Government Procurement, on several NAFTA Chapter 11 Investor-State arbitrations and led the Province’s legal team for the insolvency / restructuring of General Motors and Chrysler. He is co-author of a leading Canadian trade law treatise, has also published numerous articles and has been invited to speak at conferences around the world.

Mark Warner was interviewed on Global News Radio AM640 about about U.S. / Canadian trade relations under President Biden in the wake of the U.S. challenge under the new United States Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA) with regard to allocation how Canada allocates its dairy tariff-rate quotas and increased U.S. tariffs on imported Canadian softwood lumber. (May 26, 2021) 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 previously worked on trade and competition issues as counsel in the OECD Trade Directorate. Mr. Warner was Legal Director of the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development & Trade and led Ontario’s legal team for trade negotiations (including the Canada-EU Trade Agreement and the Canada-U.S. Agreement on Government Procurement), advised on trade disputes (including the Green Energy Act and related WTO dispute settlement proceedings, and softwood lumber) and on various NAFTA Chapter 11 investor-state arbitration. Mr. Warner also led the Province’s legal team for the insolvency / restructuring of General Motors and Chrysler. He is co-author of a leading Canadian trade law treatise, has also published numerous articles and has been invited to speak at conferences around the world.

Mark Warner was interviewed on Canada Talks SiriusXM 167 about the prospects for resolving the Canada-U.S. softwood lumber dispute in the face of rising home prices in the U.S. and also about the prospects of lifting COVID19 border travel restrictions. (May 17, 2021) 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. Mr. Warner was Legal Director of the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development & Trade and led Ontario’s legal team for trade negotiations including the Canada-U.S. Agreement on Government Procurement and the Canada-EU Trade Agreement (CETA) negotiations on matters including: Cross Border Trade in Services; Temporary Entry and Stay of Natural Persons for Business Purposes; Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications; and Regulatory Cooperation. Mr. Warner also advised on trade disputes (including the Green Energy Act and softwood lumber), on several NAFTA Chapter 11 Investor-State arbitrations and led the Province’s legal team for the insolvency / restructuring of General Motors and Chrysler. He is co-author of a leading Canadian trade law treatise, has also published numerous articles and has been invited to speak at conferences around the world.

Mark Warner was interviewed on iHeartRadio’s The Late Showgram with Jim Richards about the U.S. decision to negotiate a “waiver” from the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)for COVID19 vaccines and the evolving Canadian government response. (May 6th & 7th, 2021) 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 previously worked on trade and competition issues as counsel in the OECD Trade Directorate. At the OECD, Mark participated in the negotiations of the proposed Multilateral Agreement on Investment and represented the OECD at meetings of the WTO Working Groups on Trade and Competition Policies and Trade and Investment Policies.

Mr. Warner has assisted pharmaceutical clients in the global distribution of HIV / AIDS anti-retroviral drugs and the development of innovative patient access programs in the developing world, advised a U.S.-based pharmaceutical company and its French and South African subsidiaries in a cartel investigation involving 11 leading global Pharmaceutical companies in South Africa and advised a U.S.-based pharmaceutical company on competition law issues relating to the distribution of various nuclear medicine imaging agents in Canada. Mr. Warner was Legal Director of the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development & Trade and advised Ontario on the negotiations of the Canada-EU Trade Agreement (CETA) including on IP, patent litigation and drug reimbursement issues and on economic development, research and innovation grants and loans to corporations, including leading global pharmaceutical companies for research, manufacture and clinical trial projects. As Legal Director of the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation, Mr. Warner also led Ontario’s legal team in creating the $250 million Ontario Emerging Technologies Fund with an emphasis on life-sciences companies, drafted funding agreements, including for the Ontario Research Fund and Ontario Brain Institute, and advised on legal and corporate governance issues in the formation of Clinical Trials Ontario.

In addition, as MEDT Legal Director, Mark led the Ontario’s legal team for the insolvency / restructuring of General Motors and Chrysler in the difficult context of the 2008-2009 Recession.

[Listen to the May 6th Interview on the U.S. Decision from from 17:20]

[Listen to the May 7th Interview on the Canadian Response from from 23:36]

Mark Warner was featured on the CBC Weekend Business Panel talking about paid sick leave, the implications of President Biden’s capital gains tax proposals for Canada and  L.L. Bean opening new retail stores in Canada against the backdrop of the rise of ecommerce in the COVID19 pandemic. (May 1, 2021) Mr. Warner is a Canadian and U.S. lawyer who has practiced in Toronto, Washington, D.C., New York and Brussels has advised governments on trade policy and trade negotiations. As counsel at the OECD Trade Directorate, Mr. Warner advised on harmful tax competition issues and worked on other trade and competition issues. As Legal Director for the Ontario Ministry of Research & Innovation, Mr. Warner led Ontario’s legal team in creating the $250 million Ontario Emerging Technologies Fund, the $205 million Ontario Venture Capital Fund and establishing the Ontario Capital Growth Corporation. As Legal Director of the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development & Trade provided strategic legal advice with respect to the Ontario’s economic development, research and innovation grants and loans to corporations and led Ontario’s legal team for trade negotiations and trade and investment disputes. He is co-author of a leading Canadian trade law treatise, has also published numerous articles and has been invited to speak at conferences around the world.

Mark chaired an Insight Research Canadian Sharing Economy Symposium in Toronto in 2015. As a former Acting Legal Director for the Ontario Ministry of Consumer Services, Mark was responsible for prosecutions under the provincial consumer protection laws and regulations. Mark’s experience with online technologies and e-commerce includes: participating in OECD-wide policy work on laws and regulations affecting e-commerce, acting as Chair, ICC Competition Commission Working Party on E-Commerce and Competition Policy, serving as an original ICANN domain name dispute resolution arbitrator for eResolution and WIPO and as Rapporteur of the Hague Conference on Private International Law Commission on Jurisdiction for Torts in Electronic Commerce.

Mark Warner was featured in Politico talking assessing the first 100 days of President Biden’s Administration for Canada. (April 28, 2021) Mr. Warner is a Canadian / U.S. lawyer who has practiced trade, investment and competition law in leading law firms in Toronto, New York, Washington, D.C and Brussels and as counsel in the OECD Trade Directorate in Paris. At the OECD, Mark participated in the negotiations of the proposed Multilateral Agreement on Investment 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 Ministry of Research & Innovation. He led Ontario’s legal team for trade negotiations (including the Canada-EU Trade Agreement (CETA) and 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. Mark also led the Ontario’s legal team for the insolvency / restructuring of General Motors and Chrysler.

Mark has assisted pharmaceutical clients in the global distribution of HIV / AIDS anti-retroviral drugs and the development of innovative patient access programs in the developing world. Mark advised Ontario on IP, patent litigation and drug reimbursement issues in the negotiations of the CETA negotiations and on economic development, research and innovation grants and loans to leading global pharmaceutical companies for research, manufacture and clinical trial projects.

Mark Warner was interviewed on Canada Talks SiriusXM 167 about the U.S. decision to export COVID19 vaccine inputs to Serum Institute of India and decision to export U.S.-made AstraZeneca vaccines to certain unspecified countries. (April 26, 2021) 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 previously worked on trade and competition issues as counsel in the OECD Trade Directorate. At the OECD, Mark participated in the negotiations of the proposed Multilateral Agreement on Investment and represented the OECD at meetings of the WTO Working Groups on Trade and Competition Policies and Trade and Investment Policies.

Mr. Warner has assisted pharmaceutical clients in the global distribution of HIV / AIDS anti-retroviral drugs and the development of innovative patient access programs in the developing world, advised a U.S.-based pharmaceutical company and its French and South African subsidiaries in a cartel investigation involving 11 leading global Pharmaceutical companies in South Africa and advised a U.S.-based pharmaceutical company on competition law issues relating to the distribution of various nuclear medicine imaging agents in Canada. Mr. Warner was Legal Director of the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development & Trade and advised Ontario on the negotiations of the Canada-EU Trade Agreement (CETA) including on IP, patent litigation and drug reimbursement issues and on economic development, research and innovation grants and loans to corporations, including leading global pharmaceutical companies for research, manufacture and clinical trial projects. As Legal Director of the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation, Mr. Warner also led Ontario’s legal team in creating the $250 million Ontario Emerging Technologies Fund with an emphasis on life-sciences companies, drafted funding agreements, including for the Ontario Research Fund and Ontario Brain Institute, and advised on legal and corporate governance issues in the formation of Clinical Trials Ontario.

In addition, as MEDT Legal Director, Mark led the Ontario’s legal team for the insolvency / restructuring of General Motors and Chrysler in the difficult context of the 2008-2009 Recession.

Mark Warner was invited to appear before the Canadian House of Commons’ Standing Committee on International Trade as part of its study of Canada’s trade and investment policy, and trade agreements in respect of how they may help or hinder the production and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines in Canada and across the world. (April 23, 2021) [Transcript] 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 previously worked on trade and competition issues as counsel in the OECD Trade Directorate. At the OECD, Mark participated in the negotiations of the proposed Multilateral Agreement on Investment and represented the OECD at meetings of the WTO Working Groups on Trade and Competition Policies and Trade and Investment Policies.

Mr. Warner has assisted pharmaceutical clients in the global distribution of HIV / AIDS anti-retroviral drugs and the development of innovative patient access programs in the developing world, advised a U.S.-based pharmaceutical company and its French and South African subsidiaries in a cartel investigation involving 11 leading global Pharmaceutical companies in South Africa and advised a U.S.-based pharmaceutical company on competition law issues relating to the distribution of various nuclear medicine imaging agents in Canada. Mr. Warner was Legal Director of the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development & Trade and advised Ontario on the negotiations of the Canada-EU Trade Agreement (CETA) including on IP, patent litigation and drug reimbursement issues and on economic development, research and innovation grants and loans to corporations, including leading global pharmaceutical companies for research, manufacture and clinical trial projects. As Legal Director of the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation, Mr. Warner also led Ontario’s legal team in creating the $250 million Ontario Emerging Technologies Fund with an emphasis on life-sciences companies, drafted funding agreements, including for the Ontario Research Fund and Ontario Brain Institute, and advised on legal and corporate governance issues in the formation of Clinical Trials Ontario.

In addition, as MEDT Legal Director, Mark led the Ontario’s legal team for the insolvency / restructuring of General Motors and Chrysler in the difficult context of the 2008-2009 Recession.

Mark has provided technical assistance / legislative drafting advice to senior government officials and international institutions relating to law & policy in Africa, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, South America and Central & Eastern Europe. His academic experience includes a tenure-track teaching position at the University of Baltimore School of Law and serving as Assistant Director of its Center of International & Comparative Law; part-time teaching positions at the University of Leiden Law School, the World Trade Institute, the International Institute for Management in Telecommunications, the Howard University Summer program at the University of the Western Cape (Cape Town), the International Law Institute African Centre for Legal Excellence and Addis Ababa University Faculty of Business and Economics and appointments as Visiting Fellow at Osgoode Hall Law School and Executive Fellow at the Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation at the University of Toronto.

Mark Warner was featured in a Hill Times article about Canada and a World Trade Organization “waiver” from the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) for COVID19 vaccines. (April 21, 2021) 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 previously worked on trade and competition issues as counsel in the OECD Trade Directorate. At the OECD, Mark participated in the negotiations of the proposed Multilateral Agreement on Investment and represented the OECD at meetings of the WTO Working Groups on Trade and Competition Policies and Trade and Investment Policies.

Mr. Warner has assisted pharmaceutical clients in the global distribution of HIV / AIDS anti-retroviral drugs and the development of innovative patient access programs in the developing world, advised a U.S.-based pharmaceutical company and its French and South African subsidiaries in a cartel investigation involving 11 leading global Pharmaceutical companies in South Africa and advised a U.S.-based pharmaceutical company on competition law issues relating to the distribution of various nuclear medicine imaging agents in Canada. Mr. Warner was Legal Director of the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development & Trade and advised Ontario on the negotiations of the Canada-EU Trade Agreement (CETA) including on IP, patent litigation and drug reimbursement issues and on economic development, research and innovation grants and loans to corporations, including leading global pharmaceutical companies for research, manufacture and clinical trial projects. As Legal Director of the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation, Mr. Warner also led Ontario’s legal team in creating the $250 million Ontario Emerging Technologies Fund with an emphasis on life-sciences companies, drafted funding agreements, including for the Ontario Research Fund and Ontario Brain Institute, and advised on legal and corporate governance issues in the formation of Clinical Trials Ontario.

In addition, as MEDT Legal Director, Mark led the Ontario’s legal team for the insolvency / restructuring of General Motors and Chrysler in the difficult context of the 2008-2009 Recession.

Mark has provided technical assistance / legislative drafting advice to senior government officials and international institutions relating to law & policy in Africa, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, South America and Central & Eastern Europe. His academic experience includes a tenure-track teaching position at the University of Baltimore School of Law and serving as Assistant Director of its Center of International & Comparative Law; part-time teaching positions at the University of Leiden Law School, the World Trade Institute, the International Institute for Management in Telecommunications, the Howard University Summer program at the University of the Western Cape (Cape Town), the International Law Institute African Centre for Legal Excellence and Addis Ababa University Faculty of Business and Economics and appointments as Visiting Fellow at Osgoode Hall Law School and Executive Fellow at the Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation at the University of Toronto.