Every government and advocates of “Free Trade Agreements” have dangled the illusion of jobs and prosperity. These have never materialized. Indeed the opposite is true. Hundreds of thousands of jobs have vanished through NAFTA, and experts predict at least another 50,000 jobs will be lost through CETA, the latest and most dangerous of these agreements.
Shrouded in secrecy, the Harper Conservative government, the European Union, and major trans‑national corporations recently concluded the final round of negotiations for the largest free‑trade agreement in Canada’s history since NAFTA. Although there have been setbacks in the German Parliament over the dispute mechanism, the Harper government are still pushing for a signing, at least in principle, in September 2014. CETA would take effect after it has been ratified by the EU member states, and also by the federal and provincial governments of Canada. This makes the fightback agenda very urgent; just as the MAI (Multilateral Agreement on Investments) was defeated, blocking CETA is still possible, through a strategy of mass mobilizations and by making this sellout a key issue in next year’s federal election.
The history of the Comprehensive European Trade Agreement is a story of lies, secrecy, and corporate toadying to craft the most dangerous attack on Canadian sovereignty and democracy to date. The CETA agreement will put Canadian governance, from federal, provincial and municipal levels, effectively under the rule of Canadian and European corporations. CETA goes far beyond NAFTA, but because of the preferred nation clauses in NAFTA, it will be upgraded to CETA standards so that everyone can join the corporate feast. What the Tories and later the Liberals couldn’t sell under NAFTA will be automatically accomplished in CETA and the NAFTA upgrades. Thus the untouchables (so the public thought) of water, healthcare and procurement are on the chopping block for CETA.
Disgruntled civil servants, in Canada and Europe, have leaked information to the public on both continents, through the draconian screen of security, secrecy, misinformation and outrageous lies perpetrated by the negotiators. This is how we know of an “invitation only” scoping meeting convened in 2009, where Canadian and European corporations drew up their “wish list” for a neo-liberal trade agreement. If not for whistle blowers, even parliamentarians would have no knowledge of this. The news really became public in 2012, when it was learned the negotiations had been going on for years and were apparently nearing completion.
This outraged important sectors of labour, progressive researchers and NGOs, to the point where the Federal government was compelled to hold some fake hearings and receive submissions in November 2013. The submitters were forced to base their submissions on hearsay, sketchy government documents prepared for this purpose, and leaked documents. Under this farcical duress, they were heard by a government that knew everything but officially admitted nothing. Nevertheless the submissions exposed some of the most inherent dangers.
Early in the negotiations, the EU made full access to public procurement a fundamental and necessary part of the deal. They got what they wanted. Procurement has little to do with trade, but everything to do with corporate access to every level of public spending right down to city councils, school boards, etc. Although the government says health care is not in danger, it definitely is. The current existence of P3s, the complicated integrations of public/private services and long‑term care facilities, is ample ammunition for corporate complaint mechanisms. Under CETA no government or public body will be able to develop procurement policies that favour local or regional suppliers to promote local jobs or development. All municipalities and public bodies will have to submit their procurement policies and plans to the federal government, and these will be available to all corporations. Any corporation can challenge the practices as unfair advantage, able to file charges that will not be heard in any Canadian courts, but in an as yet unspecified international tribunal made up of unspecified appointees.
Canadian water will be on the corporate agenda if it has previously been commercialized. This means that any bottled water, for instance, that is taken from a public resource and sold commercially, will provide the conditions for the water to be privatized and commercialized. CETA will privatize drinking water (including municipal procurement of water services like sewers and sanitation) by comprehensively covering these items for the first time in Canadian trade negotiations.
CETA will effectively abolish the democratic ability of municipalities, school boards, hospitals, universities, provincial agencies and Crown corporations, as well as the people of Québec and Aboriginal communities, to use their purchasing powers to stimulate local jobs and prosperity.
CETA will lock‑in full and partial water utility privatizations making these services virtually impossible to bring back into public hands. It will force corporate privatization of other public services like liquor stores and Canada Post.
CETA will allow corporations to crack into the gold mine of post‑secondary education, and threaten the integrity of research programs allowing corporations to sue students who whistle‑blow unethical research practices.
CETA will attack Aboriginal peoples’ treaty rights , sovereignty and self‑determination. with the agreement’s sweeping scope allowing foreign industries access to First Nations, Inuit and Métis lands, territories and water.
In all these agreements, the “Preferred Nation Status” clauses provide a diabolical method of upgrading each one to the status and conditions of the last negotiated deal. As bad as CETA is, the “Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership” (TTIP) negotiations now underway between the US and the EU will provide upgrades from negotiations in which Canada has no part.
It’s not a secret that Canada mostly sells raw materials to Europe, which mostly sells value‑added, finished products back to Canada. This has created an extraordinary $28 billion manufacturing trade deficit with the EU. This deficit can only get worse if we make it easier (and cheaper) for European firms to ship finished goods into Canada, and easier (and cheaper) for Canadian firms to ship resources into Europe.
Part of the summary of the Unifor submission to the hearings in November of 2013 contains the following, “We’re granting rights to private investors and corporations that are unheard of. We’re granting private investors and corporations the right to challenge democratic policy decisions made by our national and sub‑national governments if those decisions infringe on their right to profit. What about the rights of workers to decent jobs? What about the rights of citizens to democratic decision‑making?”
Why would any Canadian government negotiate away sovereignty, hand legislative and judiciary powers over to a cabal of international corporate representatives, put municipal and provincial governments under the jurisdiction of foreign corporations, and rob Canadians of decision making in our own country? Because CETA will effectively implement the neo‑liberal agenda of privatization without parliamentary decision‑making.
The Harper government will accomplish the corporate agenda through a trade deal that was negotiated in secret and will be a fact before anyone, including members of parliament, have seen a complete manuscript. The opposition parties, and particularly the NDP, have disgraced themselves in their support for what is primarily an act of treason. There has been some opposition from labour but the major exposures and opposition have come from forces such as the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, the Council of Canadians, social movements in Quebec, municipalities, healthcare organizations, environmental organizations and First Nations.
The Communist Party has been deeply engaged in all the struggles against previous corporate trade deals, from the FTA to NAFTA and others, and we continue to be part of this crucial fight. We call for the urgent formation of an all‑in resistance block of the labour movements in English‑speaking Canada and Quebec, First Nations, environmental and women’s groups, social movements, political parties and municipal organizations, to inform the public of the dangers, and to formulate an emergency fightback to stop this dangerous sellout.
Statement by the Central Committee, Communist Party of Canada, September 13‑14, 2014