On October 5, 2015, Canada, the United States, Mexico and nine other countries – together representing more than 40 per cent of the global economy – announced the conclusion of negotiations on the massive Trans-Pacific Partnership “free trade” deal.
The deal was extremely controversial. In the U.S., presidential candidates opposed it, and Nobel Prize economist Joseph Stiglitz called it “the worst trade deal ever.” After being elected into office, U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order, pulling the U.S. out of the deal in 2017.
The Council of Canadians opposes this deal because it:
- includes an investor-state dispute settlement provision that allows transnational corporations to sue governments over legislation or policies made in the public interest,
- slashes the domestic content requirement for automobiles, putting thousands of autoworker jobs at risks, and
- undermines family farmers by opening up the Canadian dairy market to imports without creating new export markets for Canadian farmers.
In Canada, in an effort to make Harper’s deal more appealing to Canadians, the agreement was renamed the “Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership” (CPTPP). The new name was one of the only things to change – much of the TPP and the CPTPP is the same.
Read about how the old TPP and the new CPTPP agreements compare »
