Mark Warner Was Featured in the Wall Street Journal Talking About the Contrasting Canadian and Mexican Approaches to the USMCA Renewal Negotiations

Mark Warner was featured in the Wall Street Journal talking about the growing frustration of the Trump Administration with Canada’s approach to the USMCA renewal negotiations, refusing to engage on U.S. priorities; Canada is playing for time, Mexico is playing for keeps. (April 17, 2026) Mr. Warner is a Canadian and U.S. lawyer who has practiced in Toronto, Washington, New York and Brussels and has advised governments on trade policy and trade negotiations. Mark also 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.

As Legal Director of the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development & Trade, Mark led Ontario’s legal team for trade negotiations (including the Canada-EU Trade Agreement and the 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. He also 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 a Better Place demonstration centre and electric vehicle charging station network, and more recently has assisted with an electrical vehicle battery manufacturing contractual dispute.

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. 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.