On Dec. 30, 2015, Council of Canadians Northwest Territories chapter activist Lois Little wrote Global Affairs Canada to express her opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
Little wrote, “It is disappointing that the Government Canada has chosen to solicit comments about the Trans-Pacific Partnership investor-state agreement via email rather than conduct a rigorous public debate about this agreement within the context of the some 40 trade/investor-state agreements that have been signed by previous governments.”
And she highlights, “My comments about the TPP are these. Canada should never enter into an agreement that: 1) puts the rights of corporate investors above those of the state, citizens, and the environment; 2) usurps judicial and constitutional sovereignty; or 3) trumps the rights and title of Indigenous nations. We have learned a hard lesson from NAFTA and expect that equally hard lessons will come from the China FIPA. These lessons are well documented [in this CCPA publication] among other publications. In short, Canadians cannot afford the TPP whether it is in the costs of ISDS cases, to public programs and services, to legislative and regulatory sovereignty, and ultimately, to our rights and freedoms.”
On Jan. 27, Global Affairs responded, “Our government supports free trade – it will help to open markets to Canadian goods and services, grow Canadian businesses, create good-paying jobs, and provide choice to Canadian consumers. …With respect to Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), the TPP will not impair the ability of Canada or its partners to regulate and legislate in areas such as the environment, culture, safety, health and conservation. Our experience under the NAFTA demonstrates that neither our investment protection rules nor the ISDS mechanism constrain any level of government from regulating in the public interest. …Regarding drug patents, the TPP affirms the World Trade Organization Doha Declaration on the TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) Agreement and Public Health to ensure access to life-saving medicines in public health emergencies.”
But the reality is much different:
– A study by Tufts University found that the TPP will cost Canada 58,000 jobs and increase income inequality. The Huffington Post reports, “In all, the study estimates that the 12 countries involved in the proposed free trade deal would lose a net total of 771,000 jobs in the 10 years after the deal comes into force.”
– Canada has been subject to 35+ NAFTA investor-state claims since the deal came into force on Jan. 1, 1994. Sixty three per cent of those claims have involved challenges to environmental protection or resource management measures. Canada has already lost or settled six claims, paying damages totaling over $170 million not to mention tens of millions more in legal costs. Transnational corporations are currently seeking over $6 billion in damages from the Canadian government for infractions like the Quebec government banning fracking under the St. Lawrence River.
– Bloomberg has reported, “The [TPP] establishes at least a five-year minimum period during which brand-name drug companies have exclusive rights to sell treatments made from living organisms, known as biologics, after they’ve been approved.” The director-general of the World Health Organization has stated, “If these agreements open trade yet close the door to affordable medicines we have to ask the question: is this really progress at all.” In 2010, biologics comprised over 14 percent of the Canadian pharmaceutical market and cost the Canadian health care system more than $3 billion a year; biologics are expected to grow to approximately 20 percent of the market over the next decade.
To demand more and better from the Liberal government, please add your name to our Let’s have real public consultations on the TPP action alert. And to tell the Liberals ‘to protect the health and safety of Canadians by rejecting the TPP’, specifically on the Bovine Growth Hormone issue, please add your name to our Reject the TPP petition.
You can also do as the NWT and Chilliwack chapters have now done, write the government at TPP-PTP.consultations@international.gc.ca.
Further reading
Trudeau offers an email address to hear from you on the TPP (Dec. 28, 2015)
