SCC Signatory to Declaration Opposed to CETA

Open Civil Society Declaration on a proposed Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between Canada and the European Union

We the undersigned have serious reservations about the scope and negotiating process of the proposed Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). We demand the following of the Government of Canada, provinces and territories:

1. Full transparency. In past trade negotiations, the public has been kept completely uninformed until a full and final agreement is reached. This is unacceptable. In the case of CETA, which is more ambitious than NAFTA and with greater impacts on federal, provincial and municipal policies, programs, regulations and public services, the public has the right to full disclosure, along with the right to informed input into the negotiations.

2. A comprehensive impact assessment. A consultation paper issued by the European Commission contains questions addressed primarily to the business community. Similarly, online consultations from the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade are insufficient. There have been no preliminary, independent studies or broad stakeholder debate and consultation. We need a comprehensive impact assessment of the proposed bilateral trade agreement on the economy, jobs, poverty, gender, human rights, culture and the environment in Canada and the European Union.

3. Protection for public services. Any agreement should fully protect public services as delivered by the current systems, as well as the ability to create new public services, without reservation, and without negative impacts from a trade based agreement. Governments must retain the authority to favour public delivery of services, such as water treatment and distribution, without fear that such a policy would be considered a barrier to trade in services by European Union companies.

4. Public procurement is a public right. The agreement should not include any commitment to open or liberalize public procurement at the subnational level, particularly at the municipal level. Canadian provinces, territories and cities must retain the policy space they need to use public money in support of sustainable local economic development. Canada and all the EU Member States need to ratify ILO Convention No. 94 on social clauses in public procurement.

5. The right to regulate. There should be complete reservation of the right to domestic regulation regarding public services, culture, public health and the environment. Regulatory harmonization efforts must adopt the higher standard in either Canada or the European Union. Municipalities, provinces and territories, and the federal government must retain the right to develop even higher standards of protection than currently exist in the European Union or any other trading partner.

6. No investment chapter. There should be no right for an investor or private company to directly challenge, in private tribunals, the laws or regulations of a foreign government that is a party to the trade agreement, but this right to challenge should reside solely with the competent government jurisdiction. Canada should immediately begin negotiations with the United States and Mexico to remove the investor rights provisions in Chapter 11 of NAFTA.

7. Labour mobility needs separate negotiations. Labour mobility needs to be anchored in any agreement as a right for workers, not designed to serve the interests of employers. Rather than as part of a trade based agreement, it should be drawn up as a separate agreement with guarantees of employment protections.

Signed
Canadian Auto Workers union
Communications, Energy and Paperworkers union
Canadian Union of Postal Workers
Canadian Union of Public Employees
Canadian Union of Public Employees Ontario
Council of Canadians
National Union of Public and General Employees
Northern Territories Federation of Labour
Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario
Rideau Institute
Sierra Club Canada