Dr. Curtis will focus some of his talk on Saskatchewan’s concerns and issues, with particular reference to energy (oil & gas, wind, hydroelectric & coal), transportation (rail) and agriculture policies and challenges in an increasingly liberalized global trade reality.

John Curtis is presently Senior Policy Advisor and Coordinator, Trade and Economic Policy, and Director of Trade and Economic Analysis, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada. As the department’s de facto chief economist, he is responsible for providing overall trade and economic policy advice and for overseeing and managing trade and economic policy analysis and research within the department, particularly with respect to emerging trade issues, the evolution of the world's economic and trade system, and the links between Canada's domestic economic structure and performance and international economic developments.

Over the past several years, Dr. Curtis concentrated on all aspects of the Uruguay Round of GATT negotiations, including its relationship to existing and emerging regional trading arrangements in Asia, Europe and Latin America. He has also played a major role in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum over the past decade, serving as the founding Chair of the Economic Committee for its first four years (1994-1998). At the same time, he was involved in the work of the OECD Trade Committee and in the Government of Canada’s private sector consultative process on trade policy.

Prior to that, he participated in the Canada-USA Free Trade negotiations, was federal government's first coordinator of regulatory reform at the Treasury Board, held various policy advisory and management positions in the Department of Consumer and Corporate Affairs, served in the economic policy secretariat of the Privy Council Office and before that with the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C.