From the Globe & Mail – Jan 6, 2011

by Maude Barlow

What you don’t know about a deal you haven’t heard of

In coming days, Canadian and European officials will intensify
negotiations on a new trade agreement most Canadians have never heard
of. The Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement
is by far the largest free-trade deal this country has ever undertaken.

If
it goes through, CETA will open up the rules, standards and public
spending priorities of provinces and municipalities to direct
competition and challenge from European corporations. Ottawa refuses to
even discuss the environmental implications, but a recent trade
sustainability impact assessment commissioned by the European Commission has sounded alarms in several areas.

The report says the kind of liberalizing trade deal envisioned will lead
to increased European investment in the Alberta tar sands, and thus to increased greenhouse gas emissions. Trade lawyer Steven Shrybman
has sounded a similar warning in a recent legal opinion, noting that
CETA will give corporations the right to ignore or challenge existing or
new rules aimed at reducing the current heavy footprint of the tar
sands. He posits that the Conservative government sees international
trade regimes as an important tool for defeating efforts to address
climate change.

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