TPP Deal Sparks Election Campaign Discussion
Will we get straight answers about the TPP before the October 19 election?
By Peter Ewart
It was a moment of high political theatre. Todd Doherty, Conservative candidate in Cariboo-Prince George, was extolling the virtues of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal at the all-candidates meeting at UNBC in Prince George. The trade deal, according to Doherty, was going to be a virtual bonanza for northern British Columbia in terms of more jobs, forestry exports, and overall prosperity.
NDP candidate Trent Derrick burst the bubble by asking a simple question. Had Mr. Doherty actually read the TPP?
Oh yes, cover to cover, Doherty replied.
In detail? The actual text? Derrick asked.
Yes, Doherty repeated.
At that point, rumblings emerged from the audience and other candidates. How could Doherty have read the text of the deal, which runs 1,500 pages, when it had been drafted in deep secrecy and a high profile figure like U.S. presidential hopeful Hilary Clinton had not even been able to get her hands on it yet?
Challenged on his claim by Trent Derrick and followed up by Liberal candidate Tracy Calogheros, Doherty ran for cover. He had only read a summary of the deal, he now claimed, supplied by the Conservative Party.
Calogheros countered: “That’s not right. It isn’t right, it isn’t honest, and it’s why this country doesn’t trust your government” (1).
The incident underscores a fundamental problem with the entire way this TPP deal is being inserted by the Harper government into the election campaign. Essentially, it is arguing that its candidates should be praising the deal to high heavens even though the text has not been released yet, and even though Conservative candidates like Doherty, despite his claim, have not read it.
When will Canadians get access to the text? “In a few days”, says Conservative trade minister Ed Fast (2). But even that claim has a touch of “now you see, now you don’t” about it. Pressed on his statement, Fast admitted that we might not get the full text, but rather “a form of the text” that may not be “full scrubbed.”
Furthermore, Fast said that he “can’t commit to releasing the so-called side letters” which are “individual agreements between countries on specific sectors.”
However, these “side letters” have definite relevance to British Columbians. For example, 250 News has repeatedly raised the issue as to whether the TPP deal impacts raw log restrictions and other related forestry policy that could impact British Columbia negatively (3). Indeed, there were various news reports this summer that, in the TPP negotiations, Japan was pushing hard for Canada to lift restrictions on raw log exports.
So far, the Harper government has been silent about any downsides to the forestry sector and forestry-based communities.
However, on October 8th, Fast also did reveal that there is a “side letter” that includes “a deal on processed and unprocessed forestry productions between Canada and Japan”. But it appears the Harper government will not be revealing the contents of this side letter anytime soon, despite the fact it sounds like it could very well have provisions in it dealing with raw log exports.
As the old saying goes, “you can’t have your cake and eat it too.” If the Harper government wants to garner votes over the TPP trade deal, it needs to make the actual text available to Canadians. Along with that, it should at least reveal the contents of this “side letter” with Japan about forestry. If there is nothing negative in it about raw log exports or forestry policy, let that be clarified.
Is that too much to ask before the October 19th election? Even a Conservative candidates like Todd Doherty might be grateful to have a glance at the side letter, and, wonder of wonders, maybe even the full text of the TPP deal.
Peter Ewart is a columnist and writer based in Prince George, British Columbia. He can be reached at: peter.ewart@shaw.ca
- Kurjata, Andrew. “That awkward moment when you say you’ve read the Trans-Pacific Partnership.” https://medium.com/longer-than-a-tweet/that-awkward-moment-when-you-say-you-ve-read-the-trans-pacific-parternship-f01248158a16
- “Ed Fast says text of TPP trade deal available within days.” Canadian Press. October 8, 2015.
- Ewart, Peter. “Are raw logs part of the TPP trade deal?” 250 News. October 7, 2015. 2015/10/07/are-raw-log-exports-part-of-the-tpp-trade-deal/
Comments
Palopu – maybe you can answer for Todd?
Nice of Doherty to full out lie to everyone. I’m sure people will make an excuse for his need to lie to the public…..truth is simply he lied.
Man, we sure are getting a lot of opinion pieces from Peter Ewert lately! Seems like new words of wisdom from him every day! I wonder if this has anything to do with his beloved NDP falling behind in the polls!
It doesn’t matter what’s in the TPP document – Comrade Ewart and his band of loopy left Mouseketeers would criticize every line of it for purely ideological reasons.
‘What, there’s a provision for the auto sector? The TPP will destroy the auto sector. And there’s also a provision for the diary sector? The TPP will destroy the dairy sector’.
Must be hard to walk around when the sky is constantly falling on your head.
Thank you Peter for explaining the mess! No wonder more than 60% of Canadians polled want a change! We are being treated by the Harper Government like mushrooms: Kept in the dark and fed a steady diet of bull manure!
Those side deals remind me of Brian Mulroney’s NAFTA which also had a side agreement concerning Canadian softwood lumber! We all know how that turned out! Nothing but lawsuits and punitive (to Canada) tariffs and a final dispute settlement in which Canada paid a billion or so just to get some peace, effectively paying all legal costs incurred by the USA in the lawsuits against Canada. Let’s hope the Japanese don’t bring their own loggers to cut our trees down and drag them onto ships as raw logs!
Advanced POLLS all weekend…should be a good turn out…ABC….for the Vets and the sanity of this country…..
We really won’t see the true impact of the TPP for a few years.. But if Harper is already putting away money to pay dairy farmers and auto workers you know they will be losing lots of jobs… Not a great start
This is not a news story. It is a highly left wing slanted opinion piece. Perhaps the columnist state his true political affiliations one day.
If it was another candidate caught lying you Cons would be all over it.
But it wasn’t, it was Todd lying to over 350 people in the audience and the other candidates.
Prince George. Many of us voted against Brian Mulrooney because of the GST and NAFTA. The main reason we did was because Chretien and the Liberals (Remember the Red Book) stated that they would scrap the NAFTA and get rid of the GST. Hmmmmm. We still have it to-day. So much for your lying Liberals.
At least Harper reduced the GST from 7% to 5% and had an export tax on the border for Canadian Lumber rather than have the Americans charge a duty. The Export tax allowed the money (15% of the value of the product) to stay in Canada. This tax kicks in when the price of lumber falls below $300.00 per thousand board feet. (Where it is now) The money is then transferred to the Provinces and goes into general revenue. It amount to over $500 Million per year in some years.
So quit the BS about Harper screwing things up. It was Chretien and his co-horts who lied to get elected, and him and Paul Martin are still trying to BS people to-day.
Time for you to wake up and smell the roses.
The Liberal Government has increased log exports consistently from 2002 to 2013 and beyond.
Exports of raw logs from crown land during this period. 21.2 Million cubic metres. Exports of raw logs from private lands 25.6 Million cubic metres. Total 46.8 Million cubic metres.
Private land owners, logging contractors, and logging truck drivers do not have an issue with these exports because they make money and create jobs. Most log exports are from the South Coast area.
I don’t believe in raw log exports, however what I think means nothing to those who make their living on raw log exports. We need to have mills to process these logs at a competitive rate, and we don’t. In fact the Liberal Government and the lumber industry in BC have shut down some 70 mills in the past 20 years. So lets put the blame where in belongs.
There are three steps that have to take place to allow log exports from BC.
1. You must obtain an exemption showing that the logs are surplus to BC’s needs. This is usually done by putting the logs up for sale, and when no one buys them, they then become surplus.
2. You must get a Provincial permit to export the logs.
3. You must get a Federal permit if the logs are going to be exported out of Canada.
So there you have it. I can remember Japanese ships loading logs in the Harbour in Prince Rupert back in 1962, and they are still doing it.
This is a big issue and requires all levels of Government to set it right. However at the end of the day, if we have no mills to process the logs, then we what do we do???
Remember the reason for the huge increase in log exports is because the Russians put a 25% export duty on raw log exports to China. The rational behind this duty (Putin’s idea) was to force Russian lumber companies to process the logs in Russia and create jobs. Not sure how that is working out for them, however the duty is still in effect 5 or more years later.
So lets hear some solutions to the problem as opposed to blaming Harper.
Palopu,
The BC liberals are all working on Todd’s campaign. You and I both know BC liberals = Conservatives.
Free Trade Agreements are not negotiated in the public domain, so lets get rid of the idea that we should be privy to the goings on before the agreements are reached. If the information was made public, we would never get any agreements finalized.
Fact of the matter is we are not privileged to information on closed meetings by our local City Hall. If the issue is about staffing, or land sales or negotiations they are discussed in closed meetings.
So if we cant do it on a local level why would anyone think we should do it on an international level.??????
The whole purpose of electing a Government is to have them do the business of the Country. That’s whats happening here. They are negotiating a free trade agreement that hopefully will create employment, and revenue for some time to come.
As a matter of interest our head negotiator is a women, and her two deputy negotiators are women. I understand that she is very thorough and not about to have the wool pulled over her eyes. These are the actual negotiators, as opposed to the politicians, who basically take the credit.
Have a nice day.
Hahahaha……c’mon Palopu…all you have to tell us is “vote for Todd….he has no job” !!
Palopu wrote: “They are negotiating a free trade agreement that hopefully will create employment, and revenue for some time to come.”
We are partners in many international trade agreements. Which ones have been to our benefit and which ones have been to our detriment? How are we doing overall?
‘This is not a news story. It is a highly left wing slanted opinion piece. Perhaps the columnist state his true political affiliations one day’
This site has been completely hijacked by loopy left whiners with WAY too much time on their hands. I envision teachers tapping away while their students are taking a test, nurses killing time between smoke breaks, Ministry workers that are bored because they haven’t opened the window yet today.
You know who drives the boat properly? Someone with a strong hand on the tiller that doesn’t freak out every time there’s rough water or a change in the wind.
You want a consensus committee flying the plane the next time you’re travelling to some BS Ministry junket in Victoria? No, you want the guy that knows how to fly the plane to do his job.
The current (and future) government of Canada has negotiated an important, 21st century trade agreement, warts and all. The federal NDP or liberals couldn’t negotiate the terms of a hot-dog stand on George Street.
gopg2015. You can rest assured that the Americans would have kicked our ass in the export of lumber, beef, dairy, etc without these agreements.
You seem to forget that more often than not it is the Canadians that are screwing around with these agreements. You like to pretend that our hands are lily white when it comes to trade agreements. Don’t be naïve.
With 335 million people to the South, and 35 million in Canada, we cannot survive without trade. Its just that simple. Someone has to buy our products, or we can just shut this Country down.
We have to negotiate the best deal we can get.
Overall I would say we are doing great. Even the socialist in this Country with dual income bring in excess of $140,000.00 per year, live in $500,000.00 homes, drive two cars, take extended high priced holidays, and generally live high off the hog.
Nothing wrong with this Country that cant be solved with some good trade agreements, and increasing our productivity.
Have a nice day.
Do the natives have to follow the rules on raw log exports or do they have no rules?
Peter your left wing rants are getting more and more irrational. So are you saying we stay out of all trade deals? If not involved with these deals how do we trade or do you believe money grows on carbon sequestering trees?
The problem is its not a trade deal at all. Its a surrender of national sovereignty to financial industry insiders and their corporations.
Germany said no way what so ever to investor state resolution clauses to any trade deal they sign…. Germany has the best export driven economy in the world. They are a first world country with a rule of law judiciary that works fine, and they see no reason to surrender their free enterprise regulations and democratic sovereignty to industry monopoly capitalism insiders. This is the sole reason that the Canada EU deal is being held up and hasn’t moved forward despite the claim by Harper that its a signed deal.
I vote for any politicians that stands up for Canada. A politicians that says this deal is a none starter so long as it has an investor state resolution clause inserted into it that doesn’t respect our national constitution and our Supreme Court of Canada.
As far as I am concerned all else are flirting with treason to the very foundation of our country. Some are just blind partisans and all to happy to sign our nation away to prove their partisan credentials.
If not involved in these trade deals then we continue to trade via WTO rules of international trade as we have before.
The globalists want to make the WTO irrelevant with trade deals like TPP because they want to lock out China from participating in the international rules making process for international trade, as China has been gaining to much influence within the WTO. The WTO has a rules based process for international trade that is open and transparent and that is what supporters of TPP fear the most. They fear open transparency because then corruption of the process is so much harder to achieve.
So Peter lets see if I have this correct, you are all cranked up about loosing sovereignty with the TPP but most likely okay with loosing sovereign power to the UN at the b Paris climate talks?
Palopu could you please stick to present day..what happened over a decade ago has no relevance at all.. Except to try to avoid the truth of how bad Harper has screwed over the country.
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