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It is time for Canada to lead in re-evaluating what type of trade agreements are needed for this century.

By HOWARD MANN PUBLISHED : Wednesday, March 9, 2016

While the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) text was in long-term legal scrub, it had taken a back seat to discussions over the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) concluded by the Conservative government during the last election campaign. The TPP has attracted vocal opposition from very diverse sources in Canada, including major innovators, labour unions and organizations focused on achieving sustainable development. With the release now of the final CETA text—the trade agreement between Canada and the EU—new debate is needed on it as well.

People even braved a blizzard to protest these corporate trade agreements.

February 2, 2015

By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers

February 17, 2015

Various so-called 'free trade' agreements are taking aim at the advancement of health care for all. Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) This is an almost-finalized agreement between Canada and the European Union that will face ratification votes in the latter half of this year or early in 2016.

As we've highlighted, this deal would lengthen the patent protection for pharmaceutical corporations

October 6, 2015

The news yesterday that the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations have concluded is one that should worry Canadians, especially in regards to the relationship between intellectual property rights (IP) and pharmaceuticals (the text of the TPP includes 29 chapters, only five of which are about trade). Even the likes of Paul Krugman have changed their tune and stated, “this is not a trade agreement. It’s about intellectual property and dispute settlement; the big beneficiaries are likely to be pharma companies and firms that want to sue governments.” Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz recently added that, “you will hear much about the importance of the TPP for 'free trade.' The reality is that this is an agreement to manage its members’ trade and investment relations – and to do so on behalf of each country’s most powerful business lobbies. Make no mistake: It is evident from the main outstanding issues, over which negotiators are still haggling, that the TPP is not about “free” trade.”

BMJ 2014; 348 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.g2402 (Published 26 March 2014) Cite this as: BMJ 2014;348:g2402

Deborah Cohen

Ongoing free trade negotiations between the European Union and the United States will lead to agreements that will “limit transparency of clinical trials” and “increase the cost of medicines” if the drug industry has its way, a coalition of public health groups has said in a report.Whereas many trade negotiations focus mainly on tariffs, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) talks will set standards and legal frameworks for drug regulation, intellectual property rights, and investment protection, which the report says will “benefit [the] commercial interests of a few multinational firms.” The report has been produced by a coalition of groups including the International Society of Drug Bulletins, the Medicines in Europe Forum, Universities Allied for Essential Medicines Europe, Health Action International Europe, and the Commons Network. A spokeswoman for the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations defended the talks, telling …

Aug 21, 2015

By Immanuel Wallerstein | Source: Toward Freedom (via Znet) | So-called free-trade treaties are about managing the protectionist interests of the various parties to these treaties

08/October/2015

Toronto, ON – Bowing to pressure from the United States (U.S.), “the Harper Conservative government has negotiated a damaging trade deal that gives patent protection to big pharmaceutical companies, while delaying access to lower cost generic drugs for ill patients who need them to stay alive. Life – saving medicines should not be a trade commodity, that only some can afford,” says Michael Hurley, president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU).Access to medicines is one of the key provisions of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal negotiated between Canada, the U.S. and ten other Pacific Rim countries. The TPP is the latest in a succession of trade deals that have limited access to medications by driving up drug prices. According to Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières, the deals are a contributing factor to drug costs tripling in the U.S. since 1987.

Toronto Star Wed Jun 24 2015

Trade pact coming, despite opposition, June 19 David Olive's championing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership is wrong-headed. To suggest that state authority in developing countries should give way to corporate power, he is doubling down on the proven dysfunction of such corporate hegemony, in terms of income inequality, and the impact on workers and the environment. Saying that Canada has really done fine so far as a result of free trade is also a blinkered view of reality. Even measured in that narrowest of methods, GDP, we have not done as well in the last 20 years as we did in the "protectionist" era of the 1950s through '70s. And when you look at distribution of this GDP, middle class families have not benefited at all. John Simke, Toronto

Officials are surprised after receiving 150,000 mainly negative responses to Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership

Press Association The Guardian, Tuesday 13 January 2015

Consultation on a controversial trade deal between the EU and the US has revealed huge scepticism, it has been revealed. An unprecedented 150,000 responses were received – over a third from the UK – mainly opposing the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.

Newly-leaked documents reveal secret trade talks could transform health care from a public service to a for-profit commodity. A leaked discussion paper presented to negotiators at the World Trade Organization promotes health “tourism” and privatization. Canada is one of 22 countries at the table negotiating the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA), along with the European Union.

The Globe and Mail Mon Dec 7 2015

The intellectual-property provisions in the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement will drive up global drug prices and make it harder to treat diseases in developing countries, Medecins sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) says. A month after the final text of the TPP was released, the medical humanitarian organization has completed its analysis of the portions of the massive trade pact that will affect drug costs.

Despite changes from earlier leaked versions of the text, there are still serious problems, Judit Rius, MSF's U.S. legal policy adviser, said. "This is catastrophic. This is very negative. The impact is going to be at multiple levels," Ms. Rius said in an interview. "First of all, it is going to delay access to generic competition [for brand-name drugs], which is a proven intervention to reduce the price of medicines."

Apr 5, 2016

The Trans-Pacific Partnership signed by International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland in February has been called “the biggest trade deal Canadians have never heard of.”

Canada has lost 500,000 manufacturing jobs since Jean Chrétien’s NAFTA deal. A Toronto report found that 20 per cent of people in and around that city are now employed in precarious, unstable or part-time jobs. This type of employment has increased by 50 per cent in the past 20 years since NAFTA was signed. In this same period, not a single notable social program has been introduced or expanded.

June 03, 2016

byDavid Korten

Opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement has become so widespread that no U.S. presidential candidate currently dares to favor it. European citizens likewise oppose the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership agreement. This opposition presents an opportunity to propose international economic agreements that support efforts to meet the livelihood needs of all people in balanced relationship with a living Earth.

KELOWNA, BC – The Surrey Board of Trade is calling on the provincial government and the federal government economic benefits of universal pharmacare for businesses at the BC Chamber of Commerce Annual General Meeting and Conference, May 29 – 31 in Kelowna. This policy was approved at today’s BC Chamber policy session as a priority to the BC Government. “Drug coverage in Canada is provided through an incomplete patchwork of private and public programs that varies across provinces. This fragmented system reduces access to medicines, diminishes drug purchasing power, duplicates administrative costs, and isolates pharmaceutical management from the management of medical and hospital care. It is needlessly costing Canadian businesses billions of dollars every year,” said Anita Huberman, CEO Surrey Board of Trade.

There is a better option. A universal, comprehensive public drug plan that was consistent throughout BC and across Canada would be a wise investment for BC’s economic prosperity. Research has shown that such a plan would reduce employer-sponsored drug costs in Canada by up to $10.2 billion per year – a $570 million annual savings for businesses in British Columbia alone.4 This would boost Canada’s labour market competitiveness.

A universal pharmaceutical program would be economically viable not only by taking advantage of the power of a single purchaser, but through the following: Reduction of administration costs for businesses and unions Elimination of the need for tax subsidies to encourage employer funded benefit packages Decreased direct emergency and acute care medical costs due to inappropriate or underuse of drug 28therapies Reduction of other health service costs 28Because of these increased efficiencies, a universal pharmacare program would increase government costs by only $3.4 billion, $2.4 billion of which could be financed by the reduced cost of private drug benefits for public sector employees. The 2015 Angus Reid Institute poll found that most taxpayers would support such a program, even if it required modest increase in taxes.

TORONTO, May 10, 2016 /CNW/ - Canada's largest union in the private sector will be participating in two rallies this week outside consultations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal as the federal government's trade committee visits Windsor and Toronto.

The trade and investment deal being negotiated between Canada and the European Union puts public health care services at risk of privatization

The CLC analysis shows how the Canadian government has failed to protect public health care services in three main ways: Canada is relying on unclear language in CETA (and NAFTA and the GATS) that may not cover Medicare, given the privatization that has already crept in to areas of public health care Canada has not negotiated a blanket exemption for Medicare in CETA, and CETA gives private European health corporations the power to challenge any expansion of Medicare, or the end of any health care privatization.

if CETA is signed, NAFTA provisions will mean that American corporations will be entitled to the same powers and benefits as European corporations. This effectively ends the  minimal protections for public health care negotiated under NAFTA.

The European Union (EU) and Canada are currently negotiating a new Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) (European Commission 2011). In early 2010, the negotiating text was leaked and posted to the Trade Justice Network website, raising a variety of red flags for European member states. The draft agreement, described as more far-reaching and ambitious than any of either party’s previous free trade agreements, has already raised concerns in Canada. These focus on the extension of government procurement commitments to include local services (Sinclair 2010), the potential addition of investment protections (Sinclair 2011), and how EU demands in the field of intellectual pr

Trade deal may add $1.65B to drug bill: study

OTTAWA - The recently announced free-trade deal with Europe will likely cost Canadians hundreds of millions of dollars more for prescription drugs, says a new analysis. The report, by two York University professors, says concessions by the federal government to cement the deal will delay the arrival cheap generic drugs by about a year, on average. And the delay will add between $850 million and $1.65 billion — or up to 13 per cent — to the total drug bill paid annually by Canadians, either directly, through insurance plans or by provinces.

The researchers are also skeptical of claims by brand-name manufacturers that extended patent life will be an incentive to the industry to invest more in Canada. "There is no incentive for them to invest more in Canada," said Marc-Andre Gagnon, one of the authors. "The question is: Are we getting bang for the buck? And the answer is No." The report warns that all Canadians will likely wind up paying more in taxes, or higher premiums for private drug plans — and Canadians who can least afford it will bear the biggest burden.

Toronto Star Sat Jul 18 2015

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a proposed trade agreement that encompasses nearly 40 per cent of world GDP, heads to Hawaii later this month for ministerial-level negotiations. According to media reports, this may be the final round of talks, with countries expected to address the remaining contentious issues with their "best offers" in the hope that an agreement can be reached. Canadian coverage of the TPP has centred primarily on U.S. demands for changes to long-standing agricultural market safeguards.

With a national election a few months away, the prospect of overhauling some of Canada's biggest business sectors has politicians from all parties waffling on the agreement. Canadian International Trade Minister Ed Fast, who will lead the Canadian delegation, maintains that the government has not agreed to dismantle supply-management protections and that it will only enter into an agreement if the deal is in the best interests of the country. The opposition parties are similarly hesitant to stake out positions on key issues, noting that they cannot judge the TPP until it is concluded and publicly released.

October 10, 2015

On October 9, the NDP released its full party platform. On the issue of 'free trade', or specifically for us the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), the platform only says, "The NDP will also set a new standard for open, transparent trade negotiations, which will ensure that we always get the best trade agreements possible for Canadians."