Thank you for your letter regarding the Trans-Pacific Partnership Free Trade Agreement (TPPA) negotiations. On August 18th of 2012, the Green Parties of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand issued a joint statement opposing the TPPA. Nonetheless, on October 9, 2012 the Honourable James Moore announced Canada had officially joined the TPPA negotiations. The limited facts that have emerged about the secretive TPP, initiated by the George W. Bush administration, indicates the pact will grant new privileges to already powerful corporations. Despite its deceptive ‘trade agreement’ title, only two of TPP’s 26 chapters actually have anything to do with trade. Instead, TPP focuses on ensuring enforceable corporate rights while increasing constraints on governments. The proposed pact will even limit the way governments can spend their own tax dollars. The information presently available warns that the adoption of TPP would mean a future of extensions on price-raising drug patent monopolies, increased corporate rights to attack government drug-pricing plans, safeguards for job off-shoring, and added corporate control over natural resources. This is particularly interesting in light of Bill C-38’s destruction of government influence over resource extraction. The TPPA will reduce the ability of governments to warn their citizens of the dangers of cigarette smoking. The TPPA negotiations are yet another disturbing example of the larger pattern of unaccountable, secretive, and undemocratic practices by the Harper Conservatives. This pattern once again evidences a real contempt for Canadians and for our democracy. For more information on the TPPA and to take action against it, I invite you to visit our website at greenparty.ca/tpp. Thank you again for contacting me. I hope you will continue to stand up for the issues that matter to you. Respectfully, Elizabeth May, O.C., M.P. Member of Parliament for Saanich–Gulf Islands Leader of the Green Party of Canada
Posted on: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 18:09:08 +0000
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