Event Date: February 3, 2025 - 5:30pm to 7:00pm
Location: DMS12102 and via Zoom, 55 Laurier Ave E, Ottawa
Presented by CIPS, the CN-Paul M. Tellier Chair on Business and Public Policy, the Hyman Soloway Chair on Business and Trade Law & the Telfer School of Management
Tensions are high in U.S.-Canada relations. President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to impose tariffs of 25% on Canadian imports once in office. He has also mused about using “economic force” against its northern neighbour and called into question Canadian sovereignty. At the same time, Canada and the United States face a range of common economic security threats, including weaponization of trade dependencies, unfair competition and foreign overcapacity in sectors critical to national security and future prosperity, and illicit trade. These challenges have led to a recent alignment of U.S. and Canadian tools of economic security and economic statecraft, including similar import restrictions on Chinese electric vehicles, tightened inward investment screening and a surge in the use of sanctions and export controls. Moreover, deeply integrated manufacturing supply chains, vital trade in energy and resources, and close military cooperation add to the need to approach economic security challenges as a team. This environment necessitates a coherent and effective strategy for the Canada-U.S. relation to ensure its long-term economic security and to move from tension to teamwork.
This event will take place in person and via Zoom. No registration is required to attend in person. If you wish to participate virtually, please register here.
Panelists:
Kim Donovan – Director of the Economic Statecraft Initiative, GeoEconomics Center, Atlantic Council
Kimberly Donovan is the director of the Economic Statecraft Initiative within the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center. Prior to joining the Council, Donovan served in the federal government for fifteen years, most recently as the acting associate director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s (FinCEN) Intelligence Division and FinCEN’s chief of staff and senior advisor to the director. Donovan holds extensive expertise in anti-money laundering/countering the financing of terrorism, the Bank Secrecy Act, US national security, Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctions programs, and FinCEN regulatory actions. Prior to joining FinCEN, Donovan served a tour on the White House National Security Council as a director for counterterrorism and served in Treasury’s Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes as a senior policy advisor and acting director of the Middle East and North Africa. Before joining Treasury, Donovan worked in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence/National Counterterrorism Center and the Defense Intelligence Agency. In these roles, Donovan developed national strategies to combat terrorist groups and terrorist financing leveraging the full range of US economic tools, advised senior policymakers on critical national security challenges, and collaborated with foreign partners to advance shared foreign-policy objectives. Donovan holds a master of arts in international peace and conflict resolution from the School of International Service at American University and a bachelor of arts in political science from the University of Vermont. She resides in Northern Virginia with her family.
Geoffrey Gertz – Senior Fellow, Energy, Economics, and Security Program, Center for a New American Security
Geoffrey Gertz is a senior fellow with the Energy, Economics, and Security Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). His research focuses on economic tools for protecting and promoting critical technologies; digital policy and data governance; and geoeconomic competition. Prior to joining CNAS, Gertz served as director for international economics at the White House, jointly appointed to the National Security Council and the National Economic Council, where his portfolio covered emerging technology and digital policy. He also served as senior advisor at the State Department’s Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy, where he covered U.S. diplomatic engagement on digital economy regulations and cross-border data flows. Before entering government, Gertz was a fellow in the Global Economy and Development program at the Brookings Institution, a non-resident research associate at the University of Oxford’s Global Economic Governance Programme, and an adjunct professor at George Washington University. He has published widely in both policy and academic publications, including The Washington Quarterly, Foreign Policy, The Washington Post, the Review of International Political Economy, International Studies Quarterly, and World Development, and is frequently cited by major media outlets including The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Reuters, PBS, and The Guardian. He received a DPhil (PhD) and MPhil in international relations from the University of Oxford, and a BA in economics from DePauw University.
Danielle Goldfarb – Global Fellow, Wilson Center
Danielle Goldfarb is an advisor and expert on the digital economy, real-time data, geopolitics, trade, and public policy. She is a Canada Institute global fellow, a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, an advisor on public policy to Mila (Quebec Institute on Artificial Intelligence), on the Board of the Toronto Association for Business and Economics, and a distinguished fellow at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. Danielle is known for creating leading-edge research programs and novel data approaches at the C.D. Howe Institute, The Conference Board of Canada, and data tech company RIWI (Real-time Interactive Worldwide Intelligence). These include several research programs on Canada’s trade and trade policies, collaborations to measure digital trade and the global “gig economy”, and the creation of high-frequency economic and geopolitical conflict data feeds. She has been an advisor to Statistics Canada, Global Affairs Canada, Canadian parliamentary committees, the Deputy Minister of Trade, and the Prime Minister’s Office. Danielle is considered “one of Canada’s top trade experts” (Maclean’s magazine). One of Danielle’s current areas of focus is on the potential of the data and AI explosion to improve public interest outcomes, while also confronting the risks it presents. Danielle created and teaches a popular graduate seminar on this theme at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs. Her TEDx talk, “The Smartest Way to Predict the Future,” is about leveraging new technologies to address data bias, improving prediction. Danielle holds an M.Phil. in International Relations from Cambridge University and a B.Comm. in Honours Economics from McGill University.
Jeff Mahon – Director, Geopolitical Advisory Practice, StrategyCorp
Jeff’s career has taken him all over Canada and across the world, spanning private international business and public commercial policy. As Director of StrategyCorp’s Geopolitical Advisory Practice, Jeff serves clients in navigating a fast changing political and policy environment by translating big-picture trends into tractable solutions. Armed with technical regulatory knowledge, a background in foreign policy development, and experience negotiating and executing international trade contracts, Jeff brings a unique skillset to position clients to not only prepare for and respond to risks but also to seize opportunities in a new era of globalization. Prior to joining StrategyCorp, Jeff served on important files and policy areas with the Canadian federal government. His most recent role was Deputy Director at Global Affairs Canada’s China Division where over several years he covered range of files including investment; science, technology & innovation (STI); economic security; and policy surrounding promotion of Canada’s key economic sectors: energy & resources, finance, automotive, life sciences and cleantech. While at Industry Canada he served as Senior Adviser at both the Investment Review Division and the Investment Attraction Directorate. Prior to joining the federal government, he was Nunavut’s Chief Negotiator for the Canada Free Trade Agreement (CFTA), where he spearheaded the creation of the Regulatory Reconciliation and Cooperation Table (RRCT), a new intergovernmental institution designed to reduce red tape and enable interprovincial business. He also founded an international trade brokerage company focusing on Canadian agricultural exports to China. Jeff is a keen observer of international relations and geoeconomics, having been published in iPolitics and the C.D. Howe Institute. Hailing from small town Saskatchewan, he is a proud alumnus of the University of Regina. He is also a recipient of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal.
Moderator:
Patrick Leblond – Associate Professor and CN-Paul M. Tellier Chair on Business and Public Policy, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Ottawa
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