Here, on how the Cons' multi-billion dollar price tag for Trans-Pacific Partnership compensation makes clear that every party is planning to spend large amounts of public money reshaping Canada - leaving us to choose which we value most out of the NDP's social programs, Libs' temporary infrastructure spending or Cons' corporate control.
For further reading...
- My previous column comparing the NDP and Lib plans is linked here. And I first noted the burgeoning cost of the TPP (including both direct costs and compensation) here.
- Armine Yalnizyan's review (PDF) of past Canadian recessions includes some discussion as to how free trade led to the 1990 downturn.
- David Reevely notes that the Cons' compensation cheques to politically-crucial businesses serve as a compelling indication that the TPP will indeed hurt Canadian industries, while David Molenhuis makes the same point about the auto sector in particular. And Scott Sinclair and PressProgress detail the expected impacts on supply management and the auto sector respectively.
- Cory Doctorow examines the TPP's appalling copyright restrictions, while Michael Geist argues that the Cons are misleading Canada about what they mean.
- Finally, Jeremy Nuttall reports on the work of Canadians for Tax Fairness in pointing out what the TPP will cost out of the public purse. John Nichols weighs in on the corporatist bent behind the TPP as a whole. And Don Pittis writes that the issues underlying the TPP are indeed similar to those behind other free trade deals which have harmed the public interest.
The TPP is not a 'free' trade agreement. Considering the billions of dollars of taxpayer money the Conservatives are willing to spend to join this agreement, it would be more accurately described as an 'expensive' trade agreement.
ReplyDeleteVery true. (Though given its new restrictions on copyright and intellectual property, it's also something other than "free" in other areas as well.)
Delete