Trump & Trudeau
- Details
- Published on Wednesday, 28 June 2017 13:30
- Written by editor
Trudeau has just started the process of renegotiating NAFTA. This is a true test of his leadership: Is he going to stand up for the public interest, or roll over for Trump and corporate interests?
Tell Trudeau and Canadian trade representatives not to cave to corporate power in NAFTA negotiations!
A,
This is Prime Minister Trudeau's chance to stand up to Trump.
NAFTA negotiations just reopened -- and we need to make sure this deal works for the public and not for corporate interests.
The shady corporate courts created under NAFTA have already cost Canadian taxpayers over $200 million. Ban a gasoline containing a neurotoxin? Get hit with a lawsuit. Stop an American waste disposal company from dumping toxic waste in our backyard? Pay up.
We can’t let Prime Minister Trudeau and our trade reps roll over to a new NAFTA that gives corporations even more power to sue over regulations we depend on to keep workers, consumers, and the environment safe.
That’s why we’re calling on Trudeau to keep secret corporate courts out of the new NAFTA and commit to public consultations to ensure our voices are heard.
NAFTA (The North American Free Trade Agreement) has been in place for 20 years and is up for a major overhaul right now. The Canadian government's public consultation process on NAFTA closes next month, so we don't have long to act.
You better believe that corporations, corporate law firms, and their high-paid cronies are lobbying hard to make sure this deal works for them and their clients.
That means we need to make sure our voices are louder than theirs if we want to stop the worst aspects of this deal.
Here’s what we’re asking for from a new NAFTA deal:
- Institute a democratic, accountable, and transparent negotiating process without privileged backroom access for corporate interests.
- Eliminate the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) system, which promotes job offshoring and gives multinational corporations power to sue all levels of Canadian governments before a tribunal of three corporate lawyers. These lawyers can order taxpayers to pay corporations unlimited sums of money, including for the loss of expected future profits.
- Include strong and enforceable labor and environmental standards, not the ineffective rules found in deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
- The softwood lumber dispute must be fairly resolved.
- Require all imported food, goods, and services in the agreement to meet strong domestic safety and environmental rules.
- Eliminate rules that drive up the cost of life-saving medicines by giving pharmaceutical companies extended monopolies on drug patents.
SumOfUs exists to fight for people over profits. Modern trade deals like NAFTA are more about so much more than trade. They can be tools to make corporations even more powerful than they already are -- and that's why we need to fight hard to make sure our voices are louder than the corporations pushing hard for these deals.
We know we can win because we've won before. Time and again we've come together to say “no” to bad trade deals that sacrifice our rights, our planet and our safety for the sake of corporate bottom lines. Thousands of us came together to fight against the Trans Pacific Partnership deal, and hundreds of thousands of us filled the streets of Germany and Austria to denounce CETA, the disastrous EU-Canada trade deal.
Let's show what people power is truly capable of.
Thanks for all that you do,
Emma, Fatah, Angus, Liz and the team at SumOfUs
More information:
The countdown to NAFTA talks has begun. What’s going on? A guide, The Globe and Mail, 27 June 2017.
Donald Trump says he will renegotiate new Nafta deal rather than 'terminate' it, The Independent, April 27 2017.
Trump promises ‘pleasant surprises’ on NAFTA, The Hill, April 11 2017.
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