Please, stand up!
By chance, is anyone concerned these days with what is being negotiated behind closed doors at the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement negotiations between Canada and the European Union (CETA)?
If you are one of those who leave everything to the elected officials to follow what is going on, you are in danger of being disappointed and of noticing that very few care. The Réseau québécois pour l’intégration continentale (RQIC) was quick to point out the perspectives of these negotiations and their possible impact on our lives, our environment and our health, but it didn’t make any difference. And after having made many interventions with elected officials on this issue of crucial importance myself over the last few weeks, their indifference sends a chill down my spine.
There is reason to be outraged when we look at the issues at stake. In particular, about a provision for the protection of investments based on the contentious Chapter 11 of NAFTA, the one that gives corporations the power to hinder the creation of government laws which would be considered as “obstacles and barriers to trade”, even if they have been designed in the public interest.
Thus, key sectors such as water distribution and the environment are affected. For example, under that provision, a corporation could contest a regulation aimed at protecting a natural resource if it felt it would be wronged in its right to a free market.
Health and medications are also clearly covered by the European negotiators who want to penetrate these very lucrative markets. Under CETA, the public health-care system will be subject to the new rules of the market. The agreement stipulates periods of exclusivity for medications, which will delay generic drugs coming on the market and thus cause the cost of medications to explode.
I am only giving you an overview of what is covered by CETA and its consequences. And how can Québec’s elected officials continue to say that the negotiation of international treaties is outside their jurisdiction? Quite the contrary, topics close to home are being tackled in these negotiations, topics that they claim to defend. So, how can one not feel the need to shout loud and clear: please, stand up!