Canada has pivoted toward nimble sector-specific commercial arrangements lately, with critical mineral partnerships with the European Union, South Korea, and Japan.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

Arthur Lam is a founding partner of Nexus Strategic Consultants. He was a former senior adviser in the federal trade and industry ministers’ offices.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s global tariff assault confirmed what some foreign affairs experts have predicted for the last decade: the era of free trade agreements is over.

Even before Mr. Trump violated international agreements, the warning signs were evident in the near-collapse of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, the six-year impasse of the World Trade Organization’s appellate body and Canada’s paused China and India trade negotiations. Even our much-lauded agreement with the European Union ran into its own challenges, barely making it through the Netherlands’ parliament.

Our old playbook has become obsolete. And our reliance on that playbook has hurt us deeply.

OECD lowers global growth outlook as Trump’s trade war hits U.S. economy

In my time advising........

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