ANOTHER BAD TRADE DEAL TO BE RAMMED THROUGH

JUSTIN TRUDEAU, WHO NEVER met a photo op. he didn’t like, may have to miss one.

He’s scheduled to be meet with European Union officials Oct. 27 for the signing of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), a trade deal between Canada and the EU. The EU, however, can’t get the deal approved – the Walloon region of Belgium is holding out, preventing the national government from providing the EU with the needed unanimity.

Belgium and the EU will attempt to bring the region on board, or do an end-run, of course. That the Walloon legislators are absolutely right in calling CETA a bad deal makes no never mind, just as is the case with every other so-called free trade agreement.

Trade deals such as CETA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) have little to do with trade. Certainly less so with every iteration. Tariffs are already generally low or non-existent. No, this is about corporate power, specifically the power to bypass governments and the will of the public. It’s about safeguarding profits ahead of jobs, the environment, taxes, borders and a host of other democratic controls.

All of the downsides are the reason for the security surrounding such “trade” talks. Proponents don’t want you to know because they fear the public backlash would kill the deals. They simply wouldn’t hold up to public scrutiny, as they’re bound to make the economy worse for most of the people in the countries involved. CETA, for instance, is predicted to create a huge trade deficit for Canada, resulting in the loss of up to 150,000 Canadian jobs.

Among the well-documented impacts are projections CETA would give big European drug companies extended patent rights, resulting in massive cost increases for Canadian drug plans, including $1.3-billion per year on taxpayer-funded public drug plans and $1.5-billion on private drug plans.

While politicians routinely claim free trade deals create jobs and wealth, that’s just not the case. Well, not the jobs part. And the wealth goes to only a few. But that’s not what supporters will tell you. CETA and the TPP are rife with downsides, though the government continues to tout it as a jobcreation scheme, just as all governments do with trade agreements that typically result in job losses and the hollowing out of the manufacturing sector.

Of course, calling them trade agreements is rather disingenuous. The real goal is the ability to move capital with the intent of securely off-shoring jobs, intellectual property rights (a big push in the U.S.-led talks), extending pharmaceutical patents to raise the cost of drugs and reduce access.

Language in existing deals such as NAFTA becomes even more pronounced in CETA and TPP, allowing for end-runs around national governments, essentially constraining their powers. In many ways, it’s continued deregulation by stealth, as governments would be handcuffed. As parties to the negotiations, they do so willingly, attempting to hide from the public the desire to turn more power over to corporations. Once the agreements are in place, politicians can simply say their hands are tied, hoping the public doesn’t remember who tied them in the first place.

It can be argued that liberalized monetary policies and trade deals that favour corporate interests over the well-being of citizens – policies that have eroded our standard of living for three decades – culminated in the recent financial meltdown. The cure, we’re told, is yet more deregulation and globalization, essentially offering a drowning man more water instead of a lifejacket.

The Walloons have it right. It’s not like there’s any shortage of photo ops. for Trudeau.