05) THE TPP BATTLE IS JUST BEGINNING

 

People’s Voice Editorial

 

            This fight is just starting, but it won’t be easy. Stephen Harper is already crowing about the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the deal to remove barriers to maximum profits for the transnational corporations which dominate the Pacific Rim region.

 

            The only good news is that the TPP must be ratified by the parliaments of all twelve countries which negotiated the deal. This could take up to two years, giving some time to mobilize resistance. Since Canadians will likely have less time if the Tories win a majority on October 19, defeating Harper is a crucial first step to blocking the TPP.

 

            The deal comes with a hefty price tag of $4.3 billion to compensate farmers for the move to weaken marketing boards and allow increased imports of foreign poultry and dairy products. Locally based agriculture and all of rural Canada will take a big hit under the TPP, imposed by the “political friends” of farmers and small town residents. Dairy farmers have already warned that up to 25,000 jobs could be at risk across the country.

 

            Over the next five years Canada will phase out its six per cent tariff on foreign cars imported from TPP countries. Unifor, which represents auto workers in Canada, says this means that 20,000 auto worker jobs face elimination, one-quarter of employment in this sector.

 

            Drug companies will have a monopoly on patents for eight years, forcing the provinces to keep shelling out the second-highest prices in the developed world to the big pharma companies, with only the U.S. paying more. Because the TPP limits the ability of governments to regulate drug prices, efforts to win a public pharmacare system could be crippled.

 

            Whoever wins the election, mass action is needed immediately. This must become an urgent priority for the trade union movement, farmers, environmentalists and all those who oppose the corporate agenda.

 

(The above article is from the October 16-31, 2015, 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.)