CETA: Globalization wins another round

[Oscar]

Globalization wins another round

[ http://www.thetelegram.com/opinion/colu ... round.html ]

Brian Jones bjones@thetelegram.com Published on February 17, 2017

A few people who voted for the federal Liberals must be miffed that their hero, Justin Trudeau, has turned out to be merely an updated version of his predecessor, Stephen Harper, albeit a more handsome and charming one. Harper started with CETA, Trudeau signed CETA. Any hope that the Liberals would bring a different approach to the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement with the European Union was held only by the naïve and uninformed.

As politicos on the left have long known and long warned, Liberals are merely Tories with different party colours.

This week Canadians — or, at least, anyone prominent enough to be worth quoting in the media — celebrate yet another free-trade deal.

Corporatism and globalization win another round. They are the New England Patriots of international politics, seemingly insurmountable.

They can’t lose. The language is stacked in their favour. Anyone who speaks against free trade is labelled an adherent of “isolationism” or “protectionism.”

Even the phrase “free trade” is loaded. Saying you are against freedom and against trade is akin to saying you are against puppies. Whoever invented that phrase was a genius of propaganda.

The great irony is that free trade has nothing to do with freedom and little to do with trade. As opponents of CETA have been saying for years, it’s really about creating conditions to boost corporate profits and power. It is no coincidence that soon after “free trade” entered the public lexicon, so also did “sweatshop.”

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