October 20, 2013

10 second comment: CETA

Image from www.StopCETA.ca
Drew Garvie,
Rebel Youth Magazine


On Friday New Democratic Party Trade critic Don Davies released their party statement on the proposed Canada-European Union Trade Agreement:

New Democrats welcome progress towards a comprehensive new trade agreement with the European Union... We know that there are advantages and compromises in every negotiation. New Democrats will continue to take the responsible approach – we will wait until the full text is released, analyze its contents and engage in wide consultations with a diverse range of stakeholders – including business, labour, local and provincial governments, Aboriginal peoples, and others –to determine if the deal is, on balance, a good deal for Canada.

In summary, the NDP opposition says CETA is cool! Followed by vague criticism of how Conservatives lack transparency: We don't have a real opinion, but we'll see what business and other "stakeholders" have to say. Reference to Aboriginal people and Labour makes no comment on what they've actually been saying about CETA, ie. condemning it.

Youth activists, with labour and other progressive forces, need to be on the street now to make sure CETA is dumped, Harper get's defeated, and these deals torn up. It is clear that the NDP and Liberals are so wedded to big business that they will not be providing any meaningful opposition anytime soon in Parliament.

Shrouded in secrecy, the Harper Conservative government, the European Union, and major trans-national corporations recently concluded the final round of negotiations for the largest free-trade agreement in Canada’s history since NAFTA. The Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) is a over-arching Bill of Rights for big business – at the expense of all the non-corporate population, not least youth and students.

Read more on the YCL's view of CETA here.

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