9) COUNCIL OF CANADIANS SAYS CETA WILL NOT SURVIVE PUBLIC SCRUTINY

 

            The Council of Canadians says it is pleased that the Canada‑EU trade deal, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), has seen the light of day after German television show Tagesschau provided the full text online.

 

            Throughout the process, this agreement and its devastating impacts have been kept locked away from legislators and the public, shielded from a democratic process. Finally, it comes to light, probably because people in Germany are fed up with the secrecy and fed up with being taken hostage by companies,ö says Maude Barlow, Council of Canadians national chairperson.

 

            The Harper government has celebrated the completion of the agreement, setting a signing date of September 26. CETAÆs investor‑state dispute settlement provisions have been on the radar in Germany, where there is opposition to them. They would allow corporations to sue countries for lost profit. The Vattenfall decision, where a company sued Germany for pulling out of the nuclear industry, is fresh in GermanyÆs mind after the Fukushima nuclear accident.

 

            Obviously, the Harper government is tone deaf when it comes to relations with Germany and the growing opposition to CETA. We are committed to working with the opposition in Europe to kill this æcorporate bill of rights,Æö remarked Barlow.

 

            Responding to the news, the Council of Canadians also warned that this text (and earlier versions of it) should have been made public to give the public the appropriate amount of time to read it, discern its contents and comment on it fully. The whole CETA negotiation process has been undemocratic, and has failed in terms of transparency.

 

            In other observations, the group says the 25‑page investor‑state section "appears to be a standard investor‑state dispute settlement: a three‑person panel that would make decisions rather than the mature court systems. This probably will not placate Germany."

 

            The 30‑page procurement section "appears to give no consideration to the numerous Canadian municipalities that requested to be exempted from its provisions."

 

            The Council also warns that "the EU language was adopted on resolution of pharmaceutical patent disputes. This will open the flood gates to pharmaceutical companiesÆ law suits. This will lengthen patent lengths and delay generics coming to market. In the end, this could severely increase public health care costs by $900 million to $1.7 billion."

 

            After the signing ceremony, the ratification process will include translation of the complex deal into 23 languages, which could take up to two years or more. That process, according to various news reports, involves ratification by the 10 provincial legislatures (and possibly the three territorial legislatures), the 751‑member European Parliament, the EU's 28 member states, and the European Commission. Implementation of the deal is scheduled for mid‑2016.

 

            Both the NDP and Liberals have made public statements supportive of the deal, while seeking details.

 

            In sharp contrast, the Communist Party has stated bluntly that "The Harper Tories are setting the stage for privatization of all public assets and services... This trend will become virtually unstoppable with the signing of secretive deals such as the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with the European Union, which aims to prevent any future government from adopting policies or laws which could impact the profits of private corporations. CETA introduces changes which escalate previous giveaways, and adds new conditions of exploitation and penetration of global capital into Canada."

 

            The NDP says it has long maintained that "Canada should have deeper economic relations with the European Union... (but) unfortunately, Conservatives have kept Parliament and Canadians in the dark throughout the negotiations with talks conducted in secret and without any transparency."

 

            And the Liberals say, ôWe have been supportive of the deal from the start. Canada is a small country. The world economy is huge. And if we want our middle class to be prosperous û which is the core of our agenda û having trade deals with the world is absolutely essential.... ItÆs important to say this is a great step, but also we really need to start seeing some details."

 

            This support, says the Council, "comes despite the evident inclusion of the highly controversial investor‑state dispute settlement mechanism in the deal and intellectual property rules that would increase the cost of pharmaceutical drugs by billions of dollars for provincial governments across the country."

 

            The Council of Canadians was the first organization to challenge CETA. See www.canadians.org/blog/ceta-will-likely-be-signed-it-will-also-implode for more information.

 

(The above article is from the September 1-15, 2014, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading socialist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)