過去十年又六個月來加拿大的國際貿易政策出現兩大革命，其一為「全面貿易革命」，放棄二次大戰結束以來傳統依賴定期的、部分貿易自由化以及與美國部分產業的自由貿易，轉而贊成不斷在全球擴大貿易夥伴，以單邊、雙邊與複邊的全面而完全的自由貿易協定。第二項革命是永續貿易革命，即創造含有生態與社會價值的完全自由貿易協定。所累積的結果是加拿大目前與美國、墨西哥、以色列、智利與哥斯大黎加五國簽有完全的自由貿易協定，並含括影響深遠的環保條款或同時另簽環境協定。 加拿大以北美自由貿易協定為基礎的貿易與環境掛勾的策略之所以一直維持著強勢而具持久力，並廣泛應用且已有不少成果是因為獲得以下四大力量的支撐。第一股力量來自加國七國高峰會議與四邊貿易部長級會談成員的地位以及加拿大在建立以規則為基礎的WTO所展現的領導能力及在南北國家間促成非懲罰性、平衡貿易與環境協定所獲致的國際貿易社會之尊敬。第二股力量是加國經濟結構在七大工業國裡是最開放、對外貿易最依賴自然資源以及對貿易依存度比較高的出口國。加拿大在一九九六年從FDI淨輸入國蛻變為FDI淨輸出國，因而使加國有強烈保護海外FDI的願望。

The past decade and a half have seen two revolutions in Canada’s international trade policy. The first, “full free trade” revolution, was the abandonment of the traditional post World War Two reliance on periodic, partial multilateral trade liberalization and continental sectoral free trade with the US, in favour of comprehensive full free trade agreements on a unilateral, bilateral and plurilateral basis, with an ever expanding array of partners around the world. The second, “sustainable trade” revolution, came with the creation of full free trade agreements in which ecological and social values have an important, if not yet fully integral, equal and mutually reinforcing, place. The cumulative result is that Canada currently has full free trade agreements with the United States, Mexico, Israel, Chile and Costa Rica, containing far-reaching environmental provisions built into, and coming alongside, the trade agreements themselves. Canada’s current sustainable trade strategy is to replicate appropriately modified versions of these agreements, and thus expand the global effectiveness of this model, in its current negotiations for full bilateral free trade agreements with the four countries of Central America, the Caribbean Commonwealth, the European Free Trade Area, and Singapore. A similar imperative guides Canada’s current approach in the plurilateral Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA) and Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) negotiations, and in those on the multilateral Doha Development Agenda (DDA) of the World Trade Organization (WTO).