Sign PTP, a setback for Canada

Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, January 29, 2016 – Following the agreement in principle of a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), announced on 5 October after more than five years of secret negotiations, now behold the ministers of the 12 countries of PTPs agreed to meet on February 4, in Auckland, New Zealand, to formally proceed with the signing of the agreement. The event is of importance because it marks the kickoff for that in each country, snaps the legislative ratification process.

The Liberal Justin Trudeau government is committed to transparency and to achieve a thorough and open debate before the ratification process begins, so that the Canadian public is consulted. Since taking office, the Minister of International Trade, Chrystia Freeland, embarked on a series of meetings with a limited number of stakeholders handpicked, inviting Canadian women to submit their observations and comments in a box electronic. This is reminiscent of the way to make liberals under Jean Chrétien was trading when the Free Trade of the Americas (FTAA) 15 years ago.Such a process is consultation in name only.

Freeland Minister claims to be in listening mode, it maintains that its government has not yet taken a decision on the agreement. But his stated intention to sign the PTP and its reluctance to see the big multisectoral social networks in the country-including the Quebec Network on Continental Integration (RQIC), Common Frontiers and the Network for a trade just- send an entirely different signal. They also are upset because the minister did not deign to reply to the invitation to participate in the Mexican Senate, January 28, an international parliamentary dialogue on the PTP with US lawmakers , Peru and Chile, meeting in Mexico City. The event is part of a wider international meeting that brings together the social and popular movements of the TPP countries in the Americas who are concerned about the impact of this mammoth agreement.

In making the signing of an agreement whose benefits are more qu’incertains, the Canadian government is going to actually accept significant restrictions on the state’s ability to regulate in the public interest in areas that are not directly related to trade, such as the quality of food production, access to medicines, public health, the rights on the internet, environmental mitigation measures to climate change and labor standards. The agreement opens the door to a race to the bottom in wages and working conditions, an acceleration of offshoring and outsourcing, thus contributing to increasing inequality in Canada and in the other TPP countries.

PTP also includes the controversial and undemocratic mechanism for resolution of disputes between investor and State (ISDS) which allows multinationals to sue governments when they adopt public interest policies and regulations that affect their expected profits. Such lawsuits ignore our legal institutions and are heard before an international tribunal of three arbitrators, not due and paid dearly, imposing huge fines on elected governments without that one can appeal against their decisions.These provisions protect investors from excessive threaten democracy and constitutional rights, and crumbling overstep our justice system and will cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars in compensation to foreign companies making use of ISDS mechanism. Moreover, according to the Report of the United Nations expert for the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order, Alfred de Zayas, the ISDS contravenes the obligation of States to give precedence to human rights and should be banned of any trade agreement.

The PTP is a setback in terms of environmental protection. Chapter in this matter of some ambitious targets and includes no binding obligation, like the Free Trade oldest milling agreements. Indeed, environmental labels are vague and toothless, well below solid steps that countries should take to end harmful economic practices for the environment and protect the land, air, water and wildlife. Worse, the agreement has the effect of making governments cautious when adopting new policies to counter global warming.

Social organizations of Canada and Quebec before the alarm sounded by the eagerness of the government to move forward by signing the PTP, despite the serious concerns of civil society to the impacts of PTP. A recent Study of researchers from the Institute for Global Development and Environment Tufts University shows that the agreement will result in Canada losing 58,000 jobs and widen income inequalities.For its part, Canada’s largest union in the private sector, Unifor, reports that the deal threatens 26,000 jobs in the auto sector in the assembly and auto parts. The PTP is a bad deal for Canada and sacrifices the public interest.

PTP, which must be ratified as is, with no possibility of amendments, will have the effect of restricting for decades the powers of government and elected officials to act in the public interest. Ultimately, the new generation of free trade and investment agreements such as PTP aimed less at promoting trade erect a new system of rules that always gives more “rights” to transnational companies. They deeply transform power relations in our societies by operating a shift of the sovereign power of the state and legal institutions to the powerful of this world.

Information:

Pierre-Yves Serinet, rqic@ciso.qc.ca / Quebec Network on Continental Integration / cel. 438-396-6284 

Raul Burbano, burbano@rogers.com / Common Frontiers / cel. 416-522-8615 

Larry Brown, lbrown@nupge.ca / Trade Justice Network / cel. 613-228-9800