Trade

Trade is important to the Canadian economy to the extent that it enriches communities, respects democracy, and preserves our shared natural environment. But free trade agreements signed by Canada and other countries in the past 30 years have had the opposite effect.

From the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1988, through NAFTA, the WTO and Canada’s many Foreign Investment Protection Agreements, to today’s bilateral, European Union and Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, these deals enrich multinational corporations at the expense of the vast majority of people and the planet. In fact, these old and new agreements are better understood as corporate rights deals.

The Council of Canadians believes trade agreements should be made by and for people, not corporations. We campaign to make trade deals fair, and trade policy open and democratic.