Trade Minister Needs to Break Out of Bureaucrat's TPP Bubbl

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Trade Minister Needs to Break Out of Bureaucrat's Bubble on TPP

[ http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2016/02/05/Ch ... at-Bubble/ ]

Deal's massive risks demand independent, government-funded assessments.

By Murray Dobbin, February 5, 2016 TheTyee.ca

Are Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland's officials misleading her about the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)?

Freeland signed the agreement Thursday in New Zealand, but repeated her assurances that critics shouldn't worry -- the government hasn't committed to ratifying it and consultations and a full debate will precede a vote in Parliament. That could be up to two years away.

Yet so far the consultation process has not penetrated the ideological bubble created by trade department officials.

Take one example. By far the biggest concern of critics (including Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz) is the Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provision. This allows corporations to claim damages if they believe a government's laws or regulations unfairly harm their interests or hurt profits. [ http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2016/01/18/TP ... Investors/ ]

Freeland seems to be either ill informed or misled about the provision's impact. At a panel discussion in Vancouver last month she seemed unaware of the ISDS. Her fellow panelists, both economics professors, downplayed the threat.
[ http://canadians.org/blog/vancouver-bur ... -vancouver ]

For many of us who have dealt with trade bureaucrats promoting these investment protection agreements it is easy to suspect that Freeland is being deliberately misinformed by her own staff.

The Trudeau government is eager to portray itself as open to persuasion on the TPP. To bolster the position that they still might say no, the government has engaged in a flurry of consultations across the country and has made a point of inviting concerned citizens to send in questions and criticisms to Global Affairs Canada: TPP-PTP.consultations@international.gc.ca.

Sounds good. But the execution raises serious questions about how genuine the consultation will be.

First, the vast majority of consultations have been with groups supportive of these agreements: Provincial government ministers, business groups, industry reps, universities, etc. [ http://international.gc.ca/trade-commer ... x?lang=eng ]

Of 74 such meetings (as of Jan. 31), there have been a handful with "students" (but not with student council representatives who have actually studied the TPP) and a couple with labour -- with the Canadian Labour Congress and Unifor.

There have been no meetings with NGOs who have taken the time to examine the TPP closely, like the Council of Canadians and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, with First Nations (whose agreements with governments can be trumped by ISDS) or environmental groups.

Obviously there is still time for such engagement, but the process so far does not bode well for balanced input.

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[ http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2016/02/05/Ch ... at-Bubble/ ]