Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA)

I'm here in Brussels this week for a transatlantic NGO strategy session on the EU trade deals with the United States and Canada.

While the provinces have been involved in the CETA negotiations more so than past Canadian trade deals, their ability to influence the final outcome is an open question.

New York Times economist Paul Krugman is writing about the exaggerated importance of the TPP to the U.S. economy in light of reported roadblocks in the negotiations related to agricultural trade.

NDP MP Ellen Brosseau tabled a motion in the House of Commons "to ensure that the Conservatives uphold their promise to compensate cheese producers."

Marilyn Reid, a founder of Citizens Against CETA writes in The Independent that foreign investment protections in the Canada-EU trade deal undermine public control of resources and public services.

A recent German television news spot on the fledgling EU-U.S. Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership blows up the myth of massive job growth and higher wages from a free trade deal.

A freedom of information request by the BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association (FIPA) has revealed evidence of U.S. government lobbying against privacy laws in the province.

Colombian human and Indigenous rights advocates in Ottawa last week suggest that in their country, Canadian trade is profiting from a "genocide" against Indigenous communities as land is cleared.

With a provincial election required in Newfoundland and Labrador within about a year, fracking and a 'free trade' deal with Europe could be increasingly on the political agenda in the province.