International Law and Natural Resources

Article is part of the symposium: Canada and the United States: A Changing Relationship in a Changing World. In both Canada and the United States, the finite nature of our resource inheritance is increasingly appreciated, and this has raised similar concerns about availability in relation to national needs. Canada -- which has a greater percentage of its resources owned by foreign corporations than any other industrialized nation in the world -- this realization is matched by a desire to improve the economic benefit to Canadians from the export of our nonrenewable resources. Canadians are now seeking to take fuller advantage of opportunities for refining, processing, and manufacturing in our own country through legal frameworks and international agreements.

This paper discusses these recent steps toward Canada taking a more proactive stance in protecting their natural resources.