Canada-EU Deal: Trade Justice Network wants Harper to release CETA text; launches online petition demanding public review
Ottawa – The Trade Justice Network and 30
other organizations have sent an open letter to Prime Minister Harper calling
for the immediate publication of the draft text of the Canada–European Union
Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). The federal government has
just announced that negotiations on the Canada–EU deal have concluded.
“Texts from the CETA negotiations leaked over the past four years show that this agreement will have far-reaching negative implications for citizens and local communities. This is mainly because of how the deal will restrict public policy space at the request of multinational corporations on both sides of the Atlantic,” says the letter to Prime Minister Harper. “Economic assessments of the deal published since the start of negotiations have also cast serious doubt on the value of CETA to Canadian exporters and workers.”
“Texts from the CETA negotiations leaked over the past four years show that this agreement will have far-reaching negative implications for citizens and local communities. This is mainly because of how the deal will restrict public policy space at the request of multinational corporations on both sides of the Atlantic,” says the letter to Prime Minister Harper. “Economic assessments of the deal published since the start of negotiations have also cast serious doubt on the value of CETA to Canadian exporters and workers.”
The Canada-EU CETA will likely undermine democratic control over public services, provide extensive
investor rights for European corporations and the ability to enforce those
rights through unaccountable and secretive arbitration, extend patent
protections on brand name drugs with an associated sharp rise in drug costs,
eliminate buy-local options for municipal governments, and put even more
roadblocks in the way of passing effective climate and environmental protection
policies.
“We have gone to great trouble to see as
much of the CETA text as possible, and what we have seen strongly suggests it
is a bad deal for Canadians,” says the letter. “Making the full, concluded text
public would give you an opportunity to potentially prove us wrong.”
The network is calling on other groups to
endorse the call for transparency and has launched an online petition demanding
a public review of CETA before it can be signed by the federal government.
The Trade Justice Network includes a broad
cross-section of Canadian labour, environmental, farmers’, student, health,
human rights and public interest organizations concerned with the negative
impacts of Canada signing a free trade deal with Europe.
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More information: TJN.RCJ@gmail.com; 647-222-9782 (EN) or 438-396-6284
(FR)
