Swiss Re on risk: Cross-border litigation in the age of free trade
Borders, even those dividing friendly nations, tend to slow the movement of goods, services, vehicles and people. However, when it comes to risk, such demarcations are nothing more than colored lines on a map. In other words, risk knows no boundaries.
More than a decade after the United States, Canada and Mexico signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), each member conducts nearly $1.7 billion in trilateral trade daily. The end result is that an increasing amount of goods, services, vehicles and people are flowing across the borders of each of the three countries on a regular basis. The risk which accompanies this flow is, therefore, also ever increasing as well.
In an effort to highlight the risk landscape associated with cross-border trade, Swiss Re Canada Corporate Communications Head Glenn McGillivray has gathered the latest information on six diverse risk-related case studies -- ranging from online pharmacies to mad cow disease. Though by no means a substitute for formal advice from properly credentialed legal counsel, the case studies serve to illustrate that, while trade between the United States, Canada and Mexico has been greatly liberalized, issues specific to the insurance industry largely have not been addressed.
Published quarterly, "Swiss Re on risk" is an online publication that focuses on emerging risks and insurance-related issues impacting our US-based clients. If you wish to be notified when the next issue of "Swiss Re on risk" is available, please contact Corporate Communications.
"It has been recognized that the lack of standardized commercial insurance regime across parties has been a barrier to free trade and restricted the free flow of commercial traffic across the border."
