Date/Time
Date(s) - 09/04/2025
10:30 am - 12:00 pm

Location
LRW 3001

Political Science | Winter 2025 RIPS Seminar Series
Research in Progress Seminar hosted by the Department of Political Science presents:

Dissociative Continentalism: Team Canada in a Post-CUSMA North America

DATE:        Wednesday, April 9^th, 2025
TIME:         10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. EST
WHERE:     LRW 3001

This seminar welcomes Noah Fry, PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science.

Tariffs on, tariffs off. What happened to North America? Contrary to conventional thought, this non-cooperative moment is neither new nor unanticipated. Rather, we can locate the roots of a dissociative continental trade regime back to the NAFTA renegotiations. Here, North America got a new treaty but no agreement. While some are content to frame this successor treaty, CUSMA, as “NAFTA 2.0,” I make the case the new treaty delineates (but not wholly constitutes) a new continental trade regime. Mobilized under a new theoretic framework, dynamic continentalism, I empirically profile this regime shift from Formal Continentalism to Dissociative Continentalism. This dissociative moment is characterized by coercive trade relations, weaker cross-national coalitions, and neo-mercantilist ambition. In turn, Team Canada runs the risk of embracing an associative trade strategy during a dissociative moment.

Noah Fry is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Political Science at McMaster University. His research profile includes comparative and inclusive trade policy, public procurement and lobbying systems.

All are welcome to attend. No registration required.