Irritants hold up agreement on Pac Rim deal
Mulcair returns to Ontario to warn about potential loss of jobs if TPP succeeds
OTTAWA— Negotiators struggled Saturday to overcome a few remaining irritants holding up an agreement on a 12-country Pacific Rim trade deal that would shake up Canadians’ economic prospects for years to come.
Even as talks in Atlanta continued for a fourth day, NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair headed for southwestern Ontario to warn of job losses from a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, which he vowed to scrap, if elected, on the grounds that it was negotiated in secret and too close to an election.
Unifor, the union representing autoworkers in Canada, warned that compromises by Ottawa in the TPP negotiations will likely increase foreign competition for Canadian auto producers, a development that could cost thousands of jobs.
And dairy farmers in Ontario and Quebec are worried their livelihoods could be endangered if protections under the supply-managed agricultural system are lowered as a result of a TPP agreement.
“An NDP government will not be bound by any secret trade agreement signed by Stephen Harper on the eve of the election,” Mulcair said.
Mulcair will press his message on possible threats to Canada’s family farms and the auto sector on Sunday in a whistle-stop tour through Brantford, Waterloo, Stratford, London and other Ontario centres.
If an agreement in principle is reached in Atlanta, the new pact, which covers trade and common commercial standards for Canada, the United States, Japan, Mexico and other countries from four continents, will probably feature prominently in the final two weeks of the election.
In Montreal, Harper said he is in touch with Canada’s negotiators in Atlanta.
“Let me assure everyone that we will only conclude a deal that is in the best interests of our country,” he said, adding the TPP would open up huge markets in Asia to Canadian products and services.
Harper has brushed aside criticism that it’s too near the election to be binding Canada in a far-reaching trade deal.
“We need to be at the table to advance and protect our interests, to have any possibility of participating, but the final decision on a deal — obviously a deal will be made public and the final decision will be voted on eventually by the Parliament of Canada,” the Conservative leader said.
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau wasn’t on the campaign trail Saturday, but Ottawa candidate Catherine McKenna said the Liberal party wouldn’t take a yes-or-no position on the TPP until there’s more information about its contents.
“At this point, we actually have no idea what’s in the TPP, and this government has been completely secret,” McKenna said. “The devil is in the details of any trade deal, and we just don’t have the details.”
Reports from Atlanta said the key items remaining to be ironed out in the talks concerned dairy imports and patent-like protections for companies developing a new category of pharmaceuticals called biologics.