What happened to the Auto Pact? Didn it protect the industry?
The Auto Pact, signed in 1965, built Canada’s modern auto industry by setting Canadian content standards for automakers in return for tariff-free access to our market. Most of its power, however, was lost when we entered free trade with the U.S. and Mexico. The World Trade Organization (WTO) put the final nail in the Auto Pact’s coffin, by judging it an “unfair” trade practice. The Auto Pact was cancelled in February 2001. Now our industry has no safety net, as it enters its worst crisis in a generation.
