In October 2018, the Confederation of Canadian Unions held its Labour School in Charlottetown, PEI. Scott Sinclair of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives spoke on the issues of corporate free trade agreements, NAFTA II, and their effects on the Canadian economy, jobs and the environment.
Scott Sinclair is a senior research fellow with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, where he directs the centre’s Trade and Investment Research Project. Special thanks to Scott and the CCPA for giving us their time. The timestamp for the issues covered is below:
0:40 We have to confront Trump’s trade actions
1:07 We need to re-balance investor rights clauses within trade agreements
1:25 We have to tackle climate change
2:10 Reforming intellectual property rights, including Big Pharma
3:55 Question: “Can we call it ‘NAFTA 2’ instead of what Trump calls it?”
4:25 The new NAFTA is a lot like the old NAFTA
5:30 The productivity gap between Canada and the United States
6:00 Comment: “Productivity is increasing, but not wages.”
6:55 Most productivity gains have been captured by the top 1%
8:00 Thatcher, Reagan, free trade and deregulation hurt working people
8:30 Free trade assumed that the productivity gap between Canada and the United States was going to close
8:55 Comment: “Unions fought free trade since the 1980s”
10:00 Free trade was a “bloodbath” for workers in Canada with job losses
11:40 Mobility of professionals
12:35 This system has empowered corporations and the very wealthiest
13:00 Trump is exploiting legitimate working-class grievances for political gain
14:30 Trump is already putting tariffs on Canadian goods
16:25 Canada needs a national strategy to stand up to Trump’s bullying tactics
17:00 The labour share of national income has fallen in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico
19:00 Because of the disruptions from trade, we need generous retraining programs
19:30 Question: “What prompted any political party to go with free trade?”
20:00 The goal of free trade was the reduce wages and the labour share of income
21:10 Comment: “Factories closing throughout North America because of free trade”
22:20 Comment: “Corporations will go somewhere else if wages are too high”
22:35 Comment: “Trudeau is cow-towing to Trump”
23:40 Restrictions in NAFTA II make it difficult for Canada and sign a trade agreement with China
24:15 Free trade agreements aren’t about “trade”, but restrictions on government
24:55 Even some in the Canadian business community agree that we’ve gone too far with neoliberalism
25:25 We need a green industrial strategy that will create a lot of jobs
26:45 How to stand up to Trump’s bullying
27:35 Auto tariffs from Trump would be devastating
27:45 Question: “Won’t tariffs just cause higher inflation?”
30:30 Comment: “American businesses invest more in technology than Canadian ones have”
31:55 We need a better business class in Canada
33:05 Comment: “Recovery in the oil and gas industry will be a jobless one”
33:50 With automation, they can make automobiles without people
34:05 The Amazon store in New York has no employees. Everything is run by an App
36:00 Investor state dispute settlements allows corporations to sue governments
38:00 Canada has lost cases under NAFTA and lost hundreds of millions of dollars
39:05 NAFTA II will eventually phase out the investor state dispute settlements
40:50 Proportional sharing provisions
42:40 The federal Liberal government is also signing other free trade agreements
43:35 Question: “What about investor state dispute settlement in the Canada-EU trade deal?”
44:25 Question: “How are they moving away from the corporate tribunal courts?”
45:45 Investors have deep pockets and are protected in the courts
46:10 Canadian mining corporations are doing terrible things in other countries
47:15 NAFTA II doesn’t even mention climate change
48:20 The U.S. is taking India to the WTO because they’re providing subsidies to their solar industry
49:50 Comment: “Putting a tax on gasoline for working class people is a non-starter”
51:00 If we want to reduce greenhouse gases, we have to do it directly
51:50 I am extremely skeptical of carbon trading schemes
53:10 There’s a way to implement carbon taxes so they lessen the impact on the working class
53:55 We need massive public investment to stop climate change
54:40 Question: “But isn’t public investment just a form of corporate welfare?”
55:25 Comment: “We need more than just better leaders to stop climate change.”
57:05 We need an environmental Marshall Plan to save the planet
58:10 Comment: “NAFTA II wasn’t talked about in the last election. It’s undemocratic”
59:20 Comment: “We still have to push politicians to take up the issue of climate change”
59:40 Comment: “We can’t deal with the environment until we deal with poverty”
1:01:15 The costs of climate change are enormous
1:02:05 Comment: “Those in Fort McMurray are labour refugees who come from across Canada”
1:03:35 Corporations make the decisions, but working people bear the brunt of them
1:04:15 We also need to share the benefits more fairly
1:04:40 By focusing on climate change, we can also create jobs and reduce poverty
1:05:35 Two million Mexicans were forced off their lands by free trade
1:06:40 We need a global agriculture system that creates some allowances for small producers
1:06:45 Our supply management system is a good one for accomplishing that
1:07:40 There’s overproduction in some world food markets
1:10:05 There are alternatives in the food system that we can learn from
1:11:05 Comment: “There are many union workers that read right-wing newspapers.”
1:11:40 Comment: “U.S. milk may be cheaper, but it has hormones and is very unhealthy.”
1:12:30 Buying locally produced food makes a big difference
1:13:20 Making smart consumer choices is important, but we need to protect supply management
1:15:00 Comment: “It’s one thing to buy local, but it has to be competitive”
1:17:05 Supply management is going to be put under further strain by the free trade agreements
1:17:55 Canadian milk and cheese is price-competitive with that of the Americans
1:19:45 A large majority of Canadians support the supply management system
1:20:45 Canadians spend more money on drugs than any country in the world, except the U.S.
1:21:00 Intellectual property rules imposed by trade agreements hurt Canadians
1:22:50 Monopoly protection of drugs in Canada cause high prices, made worse by trade agreements
1:23:15 We need to redesign our entire intellectual property rights system
1:23:45 Free trade is also going to cause high drug prices for Mexicans
1:24:45 Thank you to Scott Sinclair for speaking to the CCU