Hyatt Regency - Fairfield Room
350 North High Street, Columbus, OH 43215
Speaker: Jim Dickmeyer | Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars
One of President Trump’s most aggressive campaign promises was to eliminate the twenty-three-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which in 1994 created a trilateral trade bloc between the United States, Canada, and Mexico, the largest trade bloc in the world. Since assuming office earlier this year, the Trump administration has softened somewhat its posture on NAFTA, no longer calling for its elimination but rather a renegotiation.
The fifth round of trilateral talks on renegotiation took place in Mexico City in late November, with a goal for concluding the renegotiation by March 2018 – an extremely ambitious timeline given the complexities of international trade dynamics set against a politically contentious backdrop. At the opening of the talks in August, the U.S. Trade Representative, Robert Lighthizer, said that “NAFTA has fundamentally failed many, many Americans and needs major improvement,” a contention that Canadian and Mexican officials dispute.
What is at stake in the NAFTA renegotiation talks under way? What issues will prove the most challenging? What are the consequences if the three countries cannot come to agreement on these? What is the impact of elections in both the United States and Mexico in 2018 on the renegotiation talks?
The Columbus Council on World Affairs invites you to join us on December 12 for a dialogue on these and related issues with the following distinguished speakers, with a special introduction by Douglas George, Consul General of Canada in Detroit:
Jim Dickmeyer, a Senior Foreign Service Officer at the U.S. Department of State and North American Competitiveness Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
Dan Ujczo, Of Counsel and Cross-Border Development Director at Dickinson Wright PLLC in Columbus, Ohio.
Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars | U.S. Department of State
Jim Dickmeyer is the North American Competitiveness Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Detailed from the U.S. Department of State, he works with the Center’s Canada and Mexico Institutes to develop programs that support the North American Leaders Summit initiatives. More broadly, Jim advises the Wilson Center programs on collaborative opportunities with public and private sector stakeholders who have an interest in developing North American competitiveness.
Mr. Dickmeyer served as Consul General of the United States of America in Toronto from 2012 to 2015. He was Minister Counselor for Public Affairs at the U.S. embassy in Mexico, where he served from 2002 to 2007. A career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Mr. Dickmeyer has served in six countries – Brazil, Guatemala, Paraguay, Bolivia, Mexico, and Canada – during his 33 years of diplomatic service. In his domestic assignments, Jim was a faculty member at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., where he taught national security studies; Director of the Office of Policy, Planning and Resources of the Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs; and director of the State Department’s Foreign Press Centers located in Washington, D.C. and New York City, serving over 3,000 foreign journalists based in the United States.
Jim earned a Masters degree in History from the Ohio State University and completed his undergraduate studies at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He is married to Heather Dickmeyer. They have two grown sons.
Dickinson Wright, PLLC
Dan is an international trade and customs lawyer who specializes in Canada-United States matters. In addition to his legal practice with Dickinson Wright, Dan has responsibility for coordinating the firm’s innovative Canada-US Platform where he collaborates with more than 400 Dickinson Wright attorneys who regularly assist businesses that have cross-border issues such as customs and compliance, corporate structuring, M&A, taxation, business immigration, intellectual property protection, and financial incentives. Dan also provides public policy counsel to government officials and corporate leaders in areas of regulatory cooperation, border security, economic development, labor mobility, corporate social responsibility, and public-private-partnerships.
Prior to joining Dickinson Wright, Dan served as an officer in Canada’s foreign ministry where he was responsible for coordinating a network of government departments and Canada-US industry associations toward improving North America’s borders and ports-of-entry. Dan also served as a liaison between government officials in Canada and the US, as well as routinely assisted companies in dealings with Canada-US regulatory agencies.
Dan holds a Bachelor of Arts from The Ohio State University and a Doctor of Law from Case Western Reserve University School of Law.