Today, the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) released a study predicting meager GDP gains of $220 per Canadian under the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). The Council of Canadians is available for comment.
“The Parliamentary Budget Officer is alerting us to the fact that CETA won’t create 80,000 new jobs and put thousands of dollars in our pockets, as was previously claimed by the Harper government,” said Maude Barlow, National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians. “In exchange for a pitiful amount of economic growth, we will increase lawsuits from European companies, destroy our family farms, decimate our fisheries, and raise our drug prices. It just doesn’t make sense.”
Sujata Dey, Trade Campaigner with the Council of Canadians, pointed out some problems with the PBO’s analysis.
“The PBO’s study uses an economic model that assumes full employment – that everyone has a job. It also measures gains from exports without looking at offsetting losses from imports,” said Dey. “Nor does the model consider effects on public services, drug prices and workers. Yet despite these flaws, the study still only predicts very small gains in GDP.”
-30-
For more information or to arrange interviews:
Dylan Penner, Media Officer, Council of Canadians, 613-795-8685, dpenner@canadians.org. Twitter: @CouncilOfCDNs
