EAST LANSING, Mich. - MSU President Peter McPherson will be among the speakers at a high-level Montreal conference assessing 10 years of free trade between the United States and Canada and five years of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The conference, "Free Trade at 10," will be held June 4-5 at the Renaissance Hotel du Parc and is sponsored by the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada. It is a follow-up to the landmark free trade conference held last September on the MSU campus and will feature many of the same world leaders.

Joining McPherson will be former U.S. President George Bush, former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, former U.S. Treasury Secretary James A. Baker III, former Canadian trade ministers Michael Wilson and John Crosbie, and Derek Burney, former chief of staff for the Canadian prime minister. Panel discussions will feature leading trade critics and specialists, business leaders, senior government officials and labor representatives from the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

"This international gathering will be in the nature of the conversation begun on campus last fall by many of the people who were involved in making free trade a reality," said McPherson, who was deputy secretary of the U.S. Treasury when the Free Trade Agreement was negotiated. "The agreement has positively changed the relationship between Canada and the United States and has been of economic value to both countries. Moreover, without this useful agreement, there would probably not be a North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico."

McPherson's participation in the conference is an expression of MSU's continuing interest and involvement in U.S. - Canadian relations. The university boasts a Center for Canadian-United States Law and a Canadian Studies Centre that coordinates the teaching, research and outreach efforts of approximately 60 faculty members with interests in business, labor relations, immigration, ethnic relations, environmental studies, fisheries, education and the arts.

Complete program details are available at the conference's Web site: http://www.freetradeat10.com.