New CETA documents leaked this morning.

The Trade Justice Network has in it's possession newly leaked documents detailing Canada's initial services and investment offers to the EU in the nearly completed free trade negotiations. The documents, which were previously secret but leaked this morning by the Quebec Network on Continental Integration have been posted on the Trade Justice Network site for all to read.I haven't had a chance to read them yet so I have no idea what they contain but if they are anything like the ones in the original leak they could be explosive.

A Little Juxtaposition on Trade

Canada isn't the only country the EU has been negotiating a comprehensive trade and investment pact with, parallel talks have been ongoing with India on a remarkably similar deal. So I've found it interesting to look in on those discussions from time to time for comparison purposes. It seems there is one significant difference  between the two and that is that India is driving a much harder bargain with the EU than our government has.

EU trade talks with India have stalled as India attempts to protect it's auto sector and is reluctant to cede on EU demands for increased drug patents and access to government procurement, all of which Harper and his cabal seem to have no concerns about giving away in their zeal to see CETA come to fruition. Granted India is in a stronger position than we are as the EU needs and covets access to the Indian market,as for Canada not so much.

In fact Harper is all too willing to give the EU virtually everything they want, which is of no surprise as our government is among the most rabid of neoliberals on the planet. So in the end it appears there will either be no EU/India deal or one that is more favourable to India than the one Canadians will be stuck with.

The Silent Destruction of Canadians Ability to Govern Themselves

Little by little through trade and security deals such as CETA and Beyond Borders we are losing the ability to make our own decisions regarding the governance of our country. Yet despite the profound effect these and other such agreements have on our lives we are given no say whatsoever in the process.Even worse,we are kept in the dark, often not even aware that negotiations are being held until they are fait accompli.

One such event happened at the WTO in December where Canada agreed along with the US,EU and several other nations to open up government procurement to foreign competition.

The World Trade Organisation’s negotiations on government procurement concluded successfully on 15 December after the Parties of the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) reached an agreement on an updated set of tender rules and additional market access commitments. The GPA covers trade in the domain of public procurement worth 500 billion Euros globally annually. According to WTO estimates, the revision of the GPA will bring extra procurement opportunities worth around 100 billion Euros.

It is believed that not just federal but provincial and municipal procurement is on the table in the now almost completed CETA talks and this agreement confirms that fear as Harper offered them up in this WTO agreement.

New market access opportunities: The EU and U.S. expanded access to their central level entities, including important US Federal agencies. Canada offered access to procurement of its Provinces and Territories. Korea provides access to railway and urban transport procurement and Japan offered access to Public private partnerships and construction projects. Israel committed to phase out its offsets schedules and to lower its construction thresholds.

Slowly but surely,well not so slowly under Harper,in the backrooms of fancy hotels and resorts, our right to govern ourselves is being farmed out to unelected bodies in foreign lands. It is long past time that we put an end to this neoliberal nightmare.

The Brits Are Not Amused: A Tale of Fibs & Desperation

The Brits are not amused with us at the moment, In a meeting with the British Foreign Office, Canada’s trade commissioner in the UK, Sushma Gera has reportedly informed UK officials that the Harper government is considering filing a challenge with the WTO over the EU's Fuel Quality Directive claiming support from Spain, Estonia and Poland . Not surprising or controversial as the EU has filed a similar challenge over Ontario's Green Energy Initiative.

 What does have the UK and the state of  California upset is that she lied to the UK officials about the status of California's attempts to implement a comparable low carbon fuel standard (LCFS), by saying they had collapsed.  “the US consideration of similar measures had just failed, as it was ‘unimplementable.’

 This prompted California's Air Resources Board to fire off a letter to EU Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard stating that LCFS was far from dead and in fact continues to roll out.


“We believe that a robust greenhouse gas (GHG) regulation to address transportation fuels like LCFS must account for differences in the carbon intensity of crudes,” the letter says.
“The principle of accounting for the lifecycle GHG emissions of transportation fuels, including those associated with the production and transportation of crude oil continues to be an important feature of the LCFS,” it says.

Needless to say the British are not amused and feel frustrated that what they see as a routine meeting to set the backdrop for a Cabinet decision is causing public relations blowback for the Foreign Office.

 Also discussed at this meeting was that Canada is refusing to link the tar sands to the ongoing CETA talks making just about the only sector not on the table. With water, increased drug patent protection and local procurement on the agenda it is beyond sad that the only sector they aren't willing to sell out to the EU is the tar sands. In fact they are so focused on promoting the tar sands in Europe that between September 2009 and July 2011, Canadian government and oil industry representatives organised more than 110 lobby events in Brussels.

That they are prepared to lie to our friends and allies and put at risk valuable relationships in their zeal to protect the tar sands is a sad testament to how far this government will go to see it's agenda come to fruition 

Troubling questions about CETA 's impact on municipalities

As negotiations between Canada and the EU near their completion we still don't know many of the details as our government only sees fit to brief business interests on them, but what we do know is extremely troubling. CETA in the governments own words is the "most robust" trade and investment agreement we have ever entered into. It's scope reaching for the first time into municipal and provincial jurisdictions.

For those not familiar with the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) here is a primer

The Columbia Institute's  Centre for Civic Governance has taken what we do know,including the leaked text and sought a legal opinion on it's potential impacts on municipalities which pretty much confirms what opponents of CETA have been saying.

Here are some of the highlights from that report titled  Municipalities and the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) 101

Prohibit municipalities from restricting tender calls to local or Canadian companies or
requiring that bidders use some proportion of local or Canadian goods, services or
labour. This would essentially end the ability of municipalities to use procurement as
a local economic or social development tool;

Prohibit municipalities from using procurement for strategic purposes, such as creating
or supporting a market for innovative goods and services, including green
technologies if the effect would favour Canadian producers or attract investment to
Canada;

Prohibit municipalities from using procurement for sustainable development purposes such as promoting food security by adopting “buy local” food practices.


Big European drug corporations may gain extended patent rights, resulting in massive cost increases for Canadian drug plans, including $1.3-billion per year on taxpayer-funded public drug plans and $1.5 billion on private drug plans.

Hydro Quebec researchers warn that CETA‟s procurement chapter could limit the ability of government agencies to use public spending to achieve goals such as economic development and regional employment. If CETA had been in place in 2003, Quebec would likely not have been able to insist on 60 per cent provincial content in wind projects. Local content requirements under Ontario‟s Clean Energy Act could face similar problems under CETA (Note: The EU has already challenged Ontario's Clean Energy Act at the WTO.)

The legal opinion warns that CETA would require municipalities to shoulder administrative costs associated with:

Providing the federal government with information and statistics about their procurement practices and activities:

Publishing detailed notices and announcements of intended procurements;

 Issuing tenders in accordance with CETA procedures and technical specifications;

Accounting to unsuccessful suppliers for their procurement decisions; and

Defending their actions if challenged, before domestic administrative, judicial and appellate bodies

The opinion also found that proposed CETA rules could slow or derail procurement processes by forcing municipalities to

Provide unsuccessful EU bidders with sufficient time to appeal their decisions;

Contend with an order suspending the procurement pending the resolution of such an appeal; or

Pay damages to an unsuccessful bidder or bidders where [municipalities] fail to comply with CETA rules.

10 Reasons Why CETA is Bad for Canada

"You can basically say that almost everything in the economy is up for discussion" Peter Van Loan

This video from the folks at NAURESISTANCE.org highlights some of the dangers to Canada posed by the proposed Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) For more info on CETA see The Trade Justice Network and  The Council of Canadians

No Wonder Harper Wants Us Kept In The Dark On CETA

While our government continues to refuse to let the Canadian public in on the details of the current negotiations toward finalizing the Comprehensive Economic & Trade Agreement (CETA) with the EU, they have no such qualms when it comes to Business and it's lobbyists. In late July they sent a representative to a luncheon held by the  European Union Chamber of Commerce in Toronto to brief them on the status of the talks.

Thanks to this luncheon we now have a better picture of what is in play and it isn't a pretty one. For instance it appears that they have reached an agreement on local procurement meaning local content provisions in government purchases and programs such as Ontario's green energy initiative will be barred. No surprise here as this is an issue the EU is very hawkish on, having already referred the issue to the WTO

Exports from the EU into Canada in wind power and photovoltaic power generation equipment are significant, ranging from 300 to 600 million € in 2007-2009. These figures could be higher should the local content requirements be removed from the legislation in question. The EU is also increasingly concerned by such measures taken by other trading partners.

The EU is also very keen on gaining favourble access to the urban transit systems and power generating equipment sectors as well.

Pharmaceuticals are another area of keen interest by Europe, wanting increased intellectual property (IP) protection for patents and pharmaceutical exclusivity periods,hence the Harper governments desire to pass updated copyright laws currently before Parliament. This will cost governments and employers that provide prescription drug coverage to their employees dearly.

Canada has also taken the position that provisions in CETA regarding the services and investment sectors including financial services  need to move beyond those in NAFTA 

Our government is also interested in garnering an agreement on labour mobility making it easier for professionals to gain temporary entry. Given the extent with which the Harper government has expanded temporary workers programs,we can guess where that one is headed.

There does appear to be some areas that they are having difficulty coming to terms on, for the EU it's Canada's  proposal for a negative-list trade approach in which all sectors and services will be automatically included unless explicitly excluded in the agreement. The EU appears more comfortable with the  traditional positive-list system in which only those sectors and services actually cited in the agreement would be included.

They are also having some difficulty coming to terms on rules surrounding the of origin of goods, especially those in the auto sector. Canada wants an agreement that reflect the reality of North American wide sourcing. For the EU, their  focus is on agriculture and fish plus wine and spirits. 

“We hope to get through the most difficult and sensitive issues by year end,” says the official. “There will be last-minute issues to be resolved.  But we expect to mop them up by early 2012.

“Both sides want to get this agreement done.”

The next round is slated to be held in Ottawa sometime in October.

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Stephen Harper and CETA or Why Let Facts Get In The Way Of Ideology

You would think embarking on negotiations towards perhaps the most sweeping trade deal this country has ever entered into, you would want to conduct some studies into it's impact on Canadians.If you're an ideologue like Harper, apparently not. Two years and eight rounds into the process our government still hasn't bothered to commission a single study of CETA's potential impacts.

Actually there is a study out there that our government is relying on,only one problem though,it was commissioned by the EU. That's right a study brought to us by the folks on the opposing side of the negotiating table. Thankfully there is a Canadian study that our government could refer to.The only problem for them is that unlike the EU study it doesn't rely on false assumptions like full employment and every penny of Canadians savings being invested inside Canada,therefore it's conclusions don't support Harpers ideology and his precious trade deal with the EU

If you're a bit of a wonk like I am here is the Jim Stanford's study Out of Equilibrium done for the CCPA or if you actually have a life and still wish to review Out of Equilibrium, Alison over at Creekside has posted  two short videos of a presentation by Jim Stanford.

The Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement - A Primer

If you think NAFTA is bad, just wait until you see what is being proposed in negotiations for The Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). CETA is a far-reaching trade deal that could touch on nearly every aspect of Canadian society.

The CETA aims to remove government regulations over such things as public purchasing, environmental standards, public services, domestic-content rules and so on.

With the CETA,  a trade agreement would for the first time apply directly to Provinces, and cities,crown corporations,  school boards, and hospitals,binding them to it's provisions in some extremely dangerous ways. For instance CETA would contain a section similar to NAFTA's chapter 11,exposing them to potentially bankrupting lawsuits for making policy decisions that benefit their constituents but may harm the profitability of some EU corporation.

Another proposal on the table is a provision that says anything not listed as exempt from the free trade agreement would be automatically covered. Which means that if a city or province fails to list any of the thousands of programs they deliver,that program is covered by the deal and open to privatisation.

The CETA would prohibit governments at all levels from spending tax dollars to encourage local development.  Bids would have to be open to EU companies with the cost of the bid the only consideration allowed. 

The EU is demanding access to our Crown corporations, such as electric and water utilities. Big Pharma is at the table demanding extended patent rights which will lead to massive increases in the cost of drugs, placing enormous strain on our healthcare budgets, potentially further increasing the threat of privatisation. Pharma isn't the only industry at the table,in fact big business are the only ones being consulted and briefed on CETA by the Harper government.

Of course we are told that this abomination will lead to increased employment and standards of living for all Canadians,which is exactly what they said about NAFTA  and we all know how that turned out. Studies to the contrary suggest that a free trade deal with the EU would cost us somewhere between 28,000 and 150,000 jobs.

This video offers an introductory glimpse into the CETA and what's at stake for us if this deal is signed.