This is how I feel about NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair’s recent appeal to Canadians to remain open to the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). If the NDP is seeking to demonstrate its thoughtfulness and moderation, this secret deal is not the right moment. NDP support for CETA — no matter how qualified — could lead Canadians down the wrong path.
Canada’s experience with other free-trade agreements belies the myth that a free-trade agreement with the European Union could somehow reverse an already imbalanced trade relationship. According to economist Jim Stanford, CETA could expose Canadians to an even greater trade deficit and lead to the loss of as many as 152,000 jobs. CETA also grants rights to corporations that jeopardize the powers of Canadian governments at every level.
Such concerns are echoed by environmental organizations, labour unions, civil society groups and a growing number of researchers and experts. In fact, Council of Canadians Chairperson Maude Barlow has been at the forefront of opposing CETA’s threat to water, education and other public services, and more than 80 municipalities and school boards have expressed concern, with more than 40 demanding to be exempt. Even a UN envoy this week signalled that this agreement would undermine the ability for Canada to support local economies and address poverty and hunger.
Despite this broad-based opposition, Mulcair is still musing about supporting CETA, but perhaps he’ll listen to the candid counsel of a friend.
I think Mulcair already knows in his gut what is best for Canadians. In outlining the “deal-breaker” issues for the NDP, he proves why CETA must be rejected outright. After all, many of his non-negotiable issues — ranging from environmental protections to buy-local programs and Canadian banking regulations — are still on the table. Even Mulcair admits that despite his promise to defend the public interest, the NDP is up against “powerful, insider interests” — not to mention an all-too-willing Harper majority government.
What would these corporate interests gain at the expense of working people? The pharmaceutical industry is seeking to extend monopoly patent rights for their brand-name drugs, which the federal government has admitted would cost the public up to $2 billion annually. The NDP says it can live with this if it is accompanied by compensation to the provinces and consumers, but this still leaves Canadian taxpayers footing the bill. In addition, European companies stand to win the right to legally challenge Canadian laws that interfere with their profits, even on issues that are of vital importance to Canadians like health care and the environment. And this is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
We already know much of what is at stake in the CETA negotiations because draft text has been leaked. So Mulcair’s “wait-and-see” approach to CETA is dangerous, not moderate. It doesn’t take a good lawyer — or even a union negotiator — to know that when the “final text” is plunked down on the table, it is too late to change the deal. Waiting for the Tories to reveal the final offer to Canadians before raising objection is akin to closing the barn doors after the horses have bolted.
This is all the more reason why the NDP should be denouncing CETA and publicly declaring that the fix is in. Exposing CETA as a “corporate bill of rights” isn’t Chicken Little alarmism, it is speaking truth to corporate power. And it is this kind of principled commitment to values that led the NDP to a historic surge in 2011.
For the four and a half million NDP voters and the millions more they hope to win over, a willingness to bend your values is not inspiring leadership. If there is any lesson to be drawn from the past, surely it is from his Liberal counterparts who learned the hard way that if you forget what you stand for, then no one else will believe in you either.
I admire the confidence that Mulcair has earned from Canadians through his principled opposition in the House. When it comes to an international trade agreement that puts corporate interests ahead of the public interest, Canadians deserve no less. The NDP must seize this opportunity to offer an alternative vision for trade — one that is sustainable, equitable and fair.
Original Article
Source: thestar.com
Author: Sid Ryan
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