U.S. energy giant Chevron (profits $26.2 billion USD) is encouraging the United States to pursue a strong NAFTA-like investment chapter and investor-state dispute settlement process in the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the European Union.

Join me for a public discussion on "CETA, FIPA, TPP: The New Face of Corporate Power." These events will be part of an eight-city speaking tour in B.C. to build opposition to Canada's corporate trade agenda (see details below).

The Government of Canada has signed, is negotiating and is hoping to ratify a variety of new corporate rights treaties that promote and lock in the rights of corporations to make a profit while undermining communities' abilities to make decisions in their own interest. Like NAFTA before them, these deals are not about trade. Every new agreement further entrenches a corporate vision of deregulation, resource exploitation and privatization.

Jock Finlayson of the Business Council of British Columbia recently wrote a column for Troy Media on the virtues of the Canada-European Union free trade deal. He listed five reasons why he thinks the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, or CETA, should be ratified as soon as possible.

But there are at least as many reasons why Prime Minister Stephen Harper should walk away from the CETA negotiations. Most relate to the ways that CETA is not about trade at all but about making dubious policy reforms that constrain our economic, social and environmental policy options in the future.

When will the Canada-European Union trade deal be signed? It was the first question at all three stops of my short trade tour to Atlantic Canada last week, which hit St. John's, Halifax and Saint John (more on that below). The answer -- "Who knows? But soon I think" -- isn't very satisfying, but with all the conflicting information out there, it's the best we've got!

This week, for example, we heard (in this order):