ORCHARD: Free at Last! Canada without NAFTA

ORCHARD: Free at Last! Canada without NAFTA

Postby Oscar » Wed Feb 08, 2017 3:08 pm

Free at last! Canada without NAFTA

[ http://commonground.ca/free-last-canada-without-nafta/ ]

by David Orchard February 2, 2017

John A. Macdonald called free trade with the US “veiled treason.” A century later, Pierre Elliott Trudeau called the FTA a “monstrous swindle.”

Donald Trump has said he intends to renegotiate or cancel the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). This would be good news if we take the opportunity to get out of the NAFTA straitjacket and begin using Canadian resources for the benefit of Canadians. Under the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) – chapters 4 and 9 and NAFTA chapter 6 – Canada gave the US the right to take the same proportion of any good, including all forms of energy, that it was taking over the previous three years, even if Canada itself goes short. The US is now taking about 60% of our oil production and with the prospect of large new pipelines to the US, which cripples the idea of an east-west pan-Canadian line because we have a finite supply of oil, that percentage will rise. Under (NA)FTA, the US has the right to continue taking this 60%, and more, of our total supply, in perpetuity. Further, Canada has agreed to never charge the US more for any good, including all forms of energy, than it charges Canadians.

Meanwhile, in addition to charging some of the world’s lowest royalty rates, we are selling our oil to the US at far less than the world price – a subsidy from Canada to the US of roughly $30 billion per year – while Canada pays some $10 billion a year to import foreign oil, mostly from Saudi Arabia and the US, into eastern Canada at world price. Does that make sense?

No self-respecting country would, as Canada did under Brian Mulroney and Jean Chrétien, sign away its resources, its sovereignty and its future in this way and most Canadians are still unaware our country has done so. (Mexico refused to sign these energy sections in NAFTA and exempted itself from their terms.)

MORE:

[ http://commonground.ca/free-last-canada-without-nafta/ ]

= = = = =

Canada: “A Northern Power” Once Again? NAFTA, “A Monstrous Swindle”

[ http://www.globalresearch.ca/canada-a-n ... le/5558102 ]

By David Orchard November 21, 2016

In 1854, Canada entered its first free trade (or Reciprocity) treaty with the United States and by 1866 it was clear the Canadian colonies were being absorbed into the US. A bill was introduced in Congress for their admission as “States and Territories of the United States of America.”

In that year, however, the US unilaterally abrogated the agreement. In shock, the Canadian colonies decided to unite and create their own economy — “a northern power.” On July 1, 1867, the Dominion of Canada was born.

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For 150 years great Canadian leaders have warned that without an economic border, Canada soon wouldn’t have a political border. John A. Macdonald called free trade “veiled treason.” A century later, Pierre Elliott Trudeau called the Canada-US FTA “a monstrous swindle.”

MORE:

[ http://www.globalresearch.ca/canada-a-n ... le/5558102 ]
Oscar
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