Gorilla Radio blog: Which Party Will Address the TPP (Before the Election)?

Friday, October 09, 2015

Which Party Will Address the TPP (Before the Election)?

TPP Deal Sparks Election Campaign Discussion: Will we get straight answers about the TPP before the October 19 election?

by Peter Ewart - News 250

It was a moment of high political theatre. Todd Doherty, Conservative candidate in Cariboo-Prince George, was extolling the virtues of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal at the all-candidates meeting at UNBC in Prince George. The trade deal, according to Doherty, was going to be a virtual bonanza for northern British Columbia in terms of more jobs, forestry exports, and overall prosperity.

NDP candidate Trent Derrick burst the bubble by asking a simple question. Had Mr. Doherty actually read the TPP?

Oh yes, cover to cover, Doherty replied.

In detail? The actual text? Derrick asked.

Yes, Doherty repeated.

At that point, rumblings emerged from the audience and other candidates. How could Doherty have read the text of the deal, which runs 1,500 pages, when it had been drafted in deep secrecy and a high profile figure like U.S. presidential hopeful Hilary Clinton had not even been able to get her hands on it yet?

Challenged on his claim by Trent Derrick and followed up by Liberal candidate Tracy Calogheros, Doherty ran for cover. He had only read a summary of the deal, he now claimed, supplied by the Conservative Party.

Calogheros countered: “That’s not right. It isn’t right, it isn’t honest, and it’s why this country doesn’t trust your government” (1).

The incident underscores a fundamental problem with the entire way this TPP deal is being inserted by the Harper government into the election campaign. Essentially, it is arguing that its candidates should be praising the deal to high heavens even though the text has not been released yet, and even though Conservative candidates like Doherty, despite his claim, have not read it.

When will Canadians get access to the text? “In a few days”, says Conservative trade minister Ed Fast (2). But even that claim has a touch of “now you see, now you don’t” about it. Pressed on his statement, Fast admitted that we might not get the full text, but rather “a form of the text” that may not be “full scrubbed.”

Furthermore, Fast said that he “can’t commit to releasing the so-called side letters” which are “individual agreements between countries on specific sectors.”

However, these “side letters” have definite relevance to British Columbians. For example, 250 News has repeatedly raised the issue as to whether the TPP deal impacts raw log restrictions and other related forestry policy that could impact British Columbia negatively (3). Indeed, there were various news reports this summer that, in the TPP negotiations, Japan was pushing hard for Canada to lift restrictions on raw log exports.

So far, the Harper government has been silent about any downsides to the forestry sector and forestry-based communities.

However, on October 8th, Fast also did reveal that there is a “side letter” that includes “a deal on processed and unprocessed forestry productions between Canada and Japan”. But it appears the Harper government will not be revealing the contents of this side letter anytime soon, despite the fact it sounds like it could very well have provisions in it dealing with raw log exports.

As the old saying goes, “you can’t have your cake and eat it too.” If the Harper government wants to garner votes over the TPP trade deal, it needs to make the actual text available to Canadians. Along with that, it should at least reveal the contents of this “side letter” with Japan about forestry. If there is nothing negative in it about raw log exports or forestry policy, let that be clarified.

Is that too much to ask before the October 19th election? Even a Conservative candidates like Todd Doherty might be grateful to have a glance at the side letter, and, wonder of wonders, maybe even the full text of the TPP deal.