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The Council of Canadians' trade campaign is dedicated to the concept of trade justice, by which we mean a trade regime designed by and for people -- not corporations. We oppose all free trade regimes designed to increase the power of corporations at the expense of social, environmental and economically sustainable development. These have included NAFTA and the WTO, the failed Free Trade Area of the Americas and Multilateral Agreement on Investment, and the recent explosion of Canadian bilateral trade agreements with developing countries and, importantly, the European Union.
We are working for trade policy reform in Canada. Our demands include full transparency in trade negotiations, the enforcement of environmental and human rights protections, the strengthening of local and national environmental, economic and social policy, and full accountability for the activities of multinational corporations operating abroad.
The Council of Canadians and Canadian Union of Public Employees have released a briefing note on recently leaked documents related to ongoing Canada-European Union free trade negotiations. The documents show that Canada and the provinces have failed to protect drinking water and wastewater services from trade rules that would encourage and lock in privatization.
Toronto councillors and community groups hauled a giant Trojan Horse in front of City Hall this morning to warn about the hidden dangers in a proposed Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) a day ahead of an executive committee meeting that will consider whether the city should be excluded altogether from the deal.
Canada's municipalities deserve a say in the CETA negotiations. A growing number of municipalities, school boards and municipal associations have raised concerns about CETA’s procurement chapter. Most of them want to see the municipal sector excluded entirely from the deal. In total, more than 30 cities, towns, school boards and municipal associations in eight provinces have passed resolutions on CETA.
Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver - Yesterday’s announcement in Washington, D.C. of a Perimeter Security and Economic Competitiveness Action Plan amounts to the wholesale replacement of Canadian privacy and security standards with U.S. ones. The result is the virtual abrogation of the privacy rights of Canadians. This deal is nothing less than the integration of Canada within the US security regime without any protections for Canadians and other persons. Read the media release and statement of principles »
Ottawa, Montreal and Vancouver – In advance of today's anticipated Canada-
U.S. border deal signing in Washington, D.C., privacy and civil liberties
advocates are releasing a 12-point statement of principles (see below) they hope
will help guide public and parliamentary debate in the months to come. The joint
statement of principles was developed over the past few months and represents
basic concerns with the trade off expected behind the anticipated deal. The
organizations listed below are available for comment on their statement as well
as the content of the anticipated 32-point Perimeter Security and Economic
Competitiveness action plan. Read the media advisory and statement of principles »
Campaigners gathered in Brussels at the start of the latest round of Canada-EU free trade negotiations from July 11-15, 2011 to call for the talks to be put on hold due to concerns that they will boost Europe’s involvement in Canada’s destructive tar sands industry.
On Thursday, July 14, Canadian and European Union trade negotiators, in Brussels for an 8th round of Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) talks, exchanged initial offers on government procurement and goods. Though delayed several times before now, the Harper government hailed the exchange as an important step in the ongoing closed-doors CETA negotiations. At the same time, his government and the provinces refuse to make the offers public, despite the big impact they will have on the economic and social policy options of our communities.
TAKE ACTION
Demand your province or territory make its CETA procurement and goods offers public, and that it hold a public debate on what is at stake in the Canada-EU free trade negotiations. For more information about how CETA will affect the provinces and territories and to take action, click here.
On June 15, Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow met with the European Union ambassador to Canada, Matthias Brinkmann, and 24 European member country ambassadors at the EU delegation office in Ottawa.
Barlow raised our concerns – shared by numerous groups in Canada and Europe – about the proposed Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). While the EU ambassador was under the impression that we were one of the few critics of the proposed deal, Barlow made it clear that many groups on both sides of the Atlantic are opposed. Read more »
MEDIA RELEASE: Harper is gambling away municipal rights with EU trade deal, Council of Canadians tells FCM delegates – Halifax, NS – Municipal councillors from across the country have been arriving in Halifax today for the annual general meeting of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities this weekend, and the Council of Canadians was there to greet them. Activists from the organization wanted to let municipal leaders know how the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) Canada is negotiating with the European Union will negatively affect municipal powers and local democracy.
Over the last two years, the Canadian government has lobbied the EU Parliament and Commission to weaken a popular EU climate measure aimed at reducing the carbon content of transportation fuels. The policy assigns the tar sands a higher carbon content level than conventional fuels. The Council of Canadians joined Canadian civil society organizations and unions in sending an open letter to Canada’s Ambassador to the EU, Prime Minister Harper, relevant Ministers and the Leaders of the Opposition demanding an end to this lobbying. Rather than lobby to weaken the efforts of other countries, the Canadian government should focus on efforts that reduce emissions, support green jobs expansion and better regulate the serious social and environmental consequences of tar sands development
Halifax – The people of Nova Scotia should reject Stephen Harper's false promises on free trade with the European Union in light of a new report showing the agreement would add only $6 billion to Canada's GDP – half what the previous government has promised – while putting the sustainability of Atlantic fisheries and the jobs of dairy farmers at risk, says the Council of Canadians.
AbitibiBowater NAFTA settlement has privatized Canadian water, trade committee hears
Council of Canadians Board member and trade lawyer Steven Shrybman presented to Parliament’s Trade committee on March 8, 2011 arguing that the record-setting $130-million NAFTA settlement with AbitibiBowater has effectively privatized Canada's water by allowing foreign investors to assert a proprietary claim to water permits and even water in its natural state.
"It would be difficult to overstate the consequences of such a profound transformation of the right Canadian governments have always had to own and control public natural resources," said Mr. Shrybman in his presentation to the Standing Committee on International Trade, which is studying the AbitibiBowater NAFTA settlement from last August.
The Council of Canadians feels strongly there is no place in existing or future trade agreements for such overstretching investment protections and has repeatedly called on the federal government to reopen NAFTA to remove the investor-to-state dispute process. The Council also recently joined several other Canadian organizations in writing to all members of the European Parliament urging them to reject the inclusion of NAFTA-like investment protections in the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, which could be signed by the end of the year.
Council of Canadians Atlantic organizer Angela Giles and Wayne Lucas, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees - Newfoundland and Labrador, write in the St. John’s Telegram on February 7 that, “In a continuing effort to hand our democratic rights over to multinational corporations, Stephen Harper has engaged Canada and the provinces and territories in an overwhelming free trade experiment with the European Union. The deal, called a Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), goes well beyond what most of us would understand as trade. CETA is designed to limit the types of economic and social policies that Newfoundland and Labrador can put in place.” Read more »
Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow speaking on the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) in Guelph, Ontario on January 26.
Council of Canadians challenges CETA in Brussels and Strasbourg
The Council of Canadians was in Brussels and Strasbourg from January 17 to 21, 2011 for the sixth round of Canada-European Union trade negotiations. We were part of a Trade Justice Network delegation that encouraged Members of the European Parliament to put the CETA negotiations on ice to allow for the negotiating mandate to be debated publicly in Canada and the EU.
In coming days, Canadian and European officials will intensify negotiations on a new trade agreement most Canadians have never heard of. The Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement is by far the largest free-trade deal this country has ever undertaken.
If it goes through, CETA will open up the rules, standards and public spending priorities of provinces and municipalities to direct competition and challenge from European corporations. Ottawa refuses to even discuss the environmental implications, but a recent trade sustainability impact assessment commissioned by the European Commission has sounded alarms in several areas.
Read more from the OP-ED written by Maude Barlow for The Globe and Mail, January 6, 2011
NEW REPORT: Public water for sale: How Canada will privatize our public water systems
Warns that public water in Canada will be lost unless the provinces and territories take immediate steps to remove water from the scope of the proposed Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). This report by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and the Council of Canadians exposes how CETA would open up public municipal water systems across Canada to privatization.
BRIEFING: Keep Europe Out of the Tar Sands-Stop the Tar Sands Free Trade Talks Trading with a climate criminal - Canada’s tar sands are attracting global concern and criticism. The tar sands have become one of the last frontiers for “Big Oil,” including major European multinationals BP, Total and Shell. The unfolding social and environmental disaster in Alberta demands urgent action, including the respect of Indigenous rights, stronger regulations on carbon emissions, water use and contamination, and more. Yet the proposed Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), if completed as planned, threatens to undermine stricter tar sands regulations in Canada and stronger climate policies in Europe. Published by The Council of Canadians, Friends of the Earth Europe, Indigenous Environmental Network, UK Tar Sands Network, January 2011.
Canadian Perspectives, our in-depth membership magazine, reports on the work of the Council and explores the important political developments affecting Canadians and the world around us. Articles written by a wide range of leading thinkers make Canadian Perspectives a valuable activist resource.
VIDEO: Free Trade With E.U. Concerns
Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow speaking on the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) in Guelph, Ontario on January 26, 2011
Learn why Nafta Saurus loves NAFTA so much; and why 61% of Canadians agree that NAFTA should be renegotiated to include enforceable labour and environmental standards
Don’t let Harper gamble with our communities 
The Council of Canadians challenges Harper on the Canada-EU free trade negotiations he promoted during a campaign stop in Halifax.
Council of Canadians Board member and trade lawyer Steven Shrybman presented to Parliament’s Trade committee on March 8, 2011 arguing that the record-setting $130-million NAFTA settlement with AbitibiBowater has effectively privatized Canada's water by allowing foreign investors to assert a proprietary claim to water permits and even water in its natural state.
Council of Canadians Atlantic organizer Angela Giles and Wayne Lucas, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees - Newfoundland and Labrador, write in the St. John’s Telegram on February 7 that, “In a continuing effort to hand our democratic rights over to multinational corporations, Stephen Harper has engaged Canada and the provinces and territories in an overwhelming free trade experiment with the European Union. The deal, called a Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), goes well beyond what most of us would understand as trade. CETA is designed to limit the types of economic and social policies that Newfoundland and Labrador can put in place.” 
Council of Canadians challenges CETA in Brussels and Strasbourg
In coming days, Canadian and European officials will intensify negotiations on a new trade agreement most Canadians have never heard of. The Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement is by far the largest free-trade deal this country has ever undertaken.
