Canada-EU trade negotiating rounds haven’t been media frenzies to this point. But as the ninth and possibly final round of talks approaches (October 17 to 21 in Ottawa) there’s signs that is changing.
Today, Agriculture and AgriFood Minister Gerry Ritz was forced to answer questions about the effect CETA would have on buy local food policies. CBC reports that the Canada-Europe Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) “is expected to include a section on ‘covered procurement’ at the insistence of European negotiators.” This means that “Municipal, provincial or federal institutions tendering large contracts above a defined threshold amount would be obliged to consider European suppliers,” they write.
“For a potentially large food supply purchase, it could mean ‘buy local’ food policies to support area farmers could not be enforced at the expense of potential European suppliers of the same products,” says the CBC article. Ritz says he’s “not hearing that at all.” He even ventures a defence of buy local food policies, saying:
“I think it comes down to the cost of goods, the transportation of goods… Certainly in some cases it makes sense if it’s a processed material to ship it that far, but when you’re talking raw produce and best-before dated product it becomes quite problematic shipping it that far.”
Terry Boehm, president of the National Farmers Union, contradicts Ritz, saying “It’s a sharp contrast to what I’ve been told to this point.” The NFU has a very active campaign against CETA based on the procurement rules which will make buy local policies impossible in a number of areas, and the intellectual property rights chapter, which will trample on farmers rights to save seeds.
EMBASSY MAGAZINE ON THE STATUS OF THE NEGOTIATIONS
Also today, Embassy magazine runs a lengthy and detailed account of the status of the CETA negotiations. It’s too long to go over here but I encourage people to read it. The article says that, “While progress is clear on some issues, like labour mobility, or is expected in others, like government procurement and services, observers point to investment protection, intellectual property, and rules of origin as some ongoing contentious issues.”
On services, offers are expected to be exchanged this week prior to the negotiating round. On investment and the investor-state dispute process, Canada’s lead negotiator told trade committee last week the discussion is “at a very early stage.” The Embassy magazine article explains this is because though the EU Commission now has a mandate to proceed with investment negotiations on behalf of all 27 member states, it was for much stronger investment protections than even NAFTA offers to foreign investors.
According to many briefings with lead negotiator Steve Verheul, the Council of Canadians and other civil society groups following the CETA negotiations have been told that Canada wanted to tone down its investor-state dispute process to weed out so-called frivolous cases. I would count the recent St Mary’s Cement claim against the Ontario government decision to block a quarry outside Hamilton as “frivolous” but the EU mandate, if integrated into CETA, could make such cases more likely by offering investors much broader protections from government interference.
On intellectual property, Embassy reports that Verheul told trade committee, “The EU was of course very interested in the [Copyright] bill that was tabled [at the end of September]… “It contains many elements that they would welcome and have been looking for.”
But… “I don’t think it contains all of the elements that they’re looking for in the area of copyright so we’ll probably be having further discussions, but we don’t expect this to be a major challenge in the negotiations.”
On drug patent terms and increased protection for brand name drugs, Verheul told committee that Canada would not move much on the EU’s demands. But Jason Langrish of the Canada-EU Round Table for Business (CERT) tells Embassy that’s not quite right.
“Just because the chief negotiator goes to a public session and says we won’t move on this, doesn’t mean we are not going to move,” he said tells the magazine. “He is saying ‘If you want us to move on this, we need something big in return.’ It’s a negotiating tactic… I cannot see any ways this negotiation can be complete without a move on IP, specifically pharmaceuticals, because [Europeans]… are keen to see changes occur.”
This is the same as what EU ambassadors to Canada told Maude Barlow, national chairperson of the Council of Canadians, when she addressed them on our concerns about CETA this spring. They were very clear that patent protections were a no-go area. Either the EU sees major gains on drugs or no deal. This could end up being the most controversial part of the CETA negotiations.
CETA WEEK OF ACTION
There are bound to be more articles on CETA over the next few days. The Trade Justice Network, to which the Council is a member, and Quebec Network on Continental Integration (RQIC) have a week of events planned starting tomorrow in Montreal and continuing through next Wednesday in Ottawa. These will include a public dialogue between MPs and another CETA Tour stop in Ottawa with Maude and Paul Moist, president of CUPE National, as well as Frederic Viale, a European guest from ATTAC France and the Seattle To Brussels Network.
Watch this space and the Council of Canadians home page for more information.