03) WILL CANADA’S NAFTA NEGOTIATORS GIVE AWAY THE STORE?
By
Liz Rowley
News that the US has withdrawn its
demand 50% of auto content be produced in the US, and 80% be produced in North
America – a demand that would have eliminated automobile assembly and parts plants
and jobs in Canada - has left news media
and NAFTA analysts in Ottawa light-headed.
They think they’ve just cleverly avoided a lethal fall over the edge of
cliff.
But they’ve forgotten two things.
First, that it was the Trump administration that opened NAFTA renegotiations by
putting a whole number of “over the cliff” options on the table, starting with
stripping Canada of auto and manufacturing jobs and industries, and continuing
with eliminating Canada’s supply-management system in agriculture (bankrupting
farmers and damaging Canada’s food security); procurement policies that would
quickly privatize public services and universal social programs; unfettered
access to Canada’s softwood lumber, oil and gas, and other rich natural
resources.
The second thing forgotten is that
the US is still demanding these things. Furthermore, having dropped their first
over-the-cliff demand, they’re expecting Canada’s negotiators to concede on one
or preferably more of their other demands – and jump over the edge of the
cliff.
According to media reports, US Chief
Negotiator Lighthizer wants Canada to give up our
supply management system for dairy and poultry, our “ridiculous” $20 threshold
for applying duties on goods purchased outside Canada, including on-line
purchases; and our “third world” intellectual property protections, among other
things not specified.
This would be folly for workers and
farmers, and for Canada.
The great danger now is that the
federal government will give in to these demands, blowing big new holes in
Canada’s economy, sovereignty, democracy, jobs and social programs. Mass public protests and pressure from the
labour and democratic movements can stop the government from signing on to a
bad deal that’s even worse than the original for working people.
It’s time that governments fought
for working people and for the interests of the country, instead of the greedy
trans-national corporations that finance them.
Instead of free trade, we need
multi-lateral and mutually beneficial fair trade with the world, and a
government willing to implement policies that put people before profits.
(The above article is from the April
1-15, 2018, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading socialist newspaper.
Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in
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c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)