I submitted the following brief comments to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade as part of a government request for input on Canada's participation in a plurilateral international services agreement.

Earlier this week, we issued an Action Alert asking Conservatives on the trade committee to stop blocking requests from the opposition to hear from Canada's CETA negotiator on the state-of-play of the Canada-EU trade talks. Now opposition members on committee are asking why they are studying Canada's possible participation in an ambiguous and possibly redundant Pacific Alliance trading bloc made up of Chile, Colombia, Peru and Mexico -- all countries with which Canada has free trade agreements and three of which are part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations.

On November 7, multinational drug maker Eli Lilly (2012 profits: $4 billion) filed a notice of intent to submit a NAFTA investment claim challenging Canada's system for granting patents after being denied one for its ADHD drug Strattera. Ears perked up around the world. As Public Citizen explains in a recent primer on the case, "Eli Lilly's move marks the first attempt by a patent-holding pharmaceutical corporation to use U.S.

Auckland, New Zealand and Berkeley, California have passed motions on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement (TPP) that will be familiar to Canadian trade activists working to exempt municipal governments from the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement.

As reported by TPPWatch in this week's regular TPP news bulletin, Auckland's regional development and operations committee considered a motion on December 6 expressing general support for the TPP negotiations. The motion was tabled by government supporters on council but amended by councillors Richard Northey and Cathy Casey to include so many conditions that it will be nearly impossible for Auckland to endorse the TPP if a deal is ever reached.