Council of Canadians calls for Ottawa to Put the brakes on secretive CETA Free trade deal between Canada and Europe
Put the brakes on CETA
The newly formed Trade Justice Network, of which the Council of Canadians is a founding member, released leaked draft text of the proposed deal on April 19. The Trade Justice Network is raising serious concerns about the agreement’s potential impact on public and environmental policy, culture, farmers and public services in both Canada and Europe and demanding that the government cease talks until it commits to transparency in the negotiations. Go here to see a full list of our demands for this deal.
“The Harper government’s NAFTA-plus experiment with Europe is embarrassingly short-sighted in a world crying out for new answers to the social, economic and climate crises of our time,” said Stuart Trew, trade campaigner with the Council of Canadians. “Unfortunately, the text we’re releasing proves this deal is just another attempt to deregulate and privatize on both sides of the Atlantic.”
The CETA has been called the most significant bilateral trade negotiation since NAFTA and the first to involve the provinces in negotiations. Controversial provisions would open Canada’s telecommunications sector to full foreign ownership, stop municipal governments from implementing local or ethical procurement strategies, and removes measures designed to protect countries and consumers from the kinds of banking crashes we saw globally in 2008. The text also presents a direct attack on Ontario’s Green Energy Act, and it would virtually eliminate the rights of farmers to save, reuse and sell seed, providing biotech, pharmaceutical, pesticide, seed and grain companies powerful new tools to essentially decide who should farm and how.
To read the CETA text, visit the Trade Justice Network website here.
To see a video of the Trade Justice Network press conference launch go here.
Take action! We must put pressure on our municipal, regional and provincial elected representatives to reject any agreement with Europe that would curtail the right to keep important services, such as health care and water, in the public realm. So get the word out! Talk to your elected representatives and tell them to put the brakes on this deal before negotiations conclude in 2011.
