OTTAWA--A new study jointly released by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) and the Canadian Council on Social Development (CCSD) has concluded that government support for non-profit social services could be at risk despite Canadian government assurances that social policies will not be adversely affected by international trade obligations.
International trade and investment, deep integration
OTTAWA-Trade ministers from Canada and 40 other countries in North, Central and South America are meeting in Miami this week to try to reach agreement on establishing a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) before December 31, 2005.
The FTAA would extend the terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to the entire Western Hemisphere (except Cuba). But to convince counterparts in Latin America of the benefits of the proposed FTAA, NAFTA-countries' trade negotiators would have to prove that NAFTA has been a boon for most people in their own countries.
The corporate and political advocates of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) continue to defend this trade deal and even to claim that its effects on the workers and consumers of all three countries--Canada, the United States, and Mexico--have been enormously beneficial.
The memorandum to cabinet conveys the same PR message that the trade ideologues are giving to the Canadian public: trade is good (no qualifiers); liberalization is good (no qualifiers); that's why we're at the WTO; go back to sleep; we've got things under control. (Although the very fact we got this document indicates dissension in the ranks.)
Canadian government concessions to the big multinational pharmaceutical companies, including an extension of their monopoly on new drugs to 20 years, have resulted in sharply escalating prices for drug prescriptions, the potential blocking of a national Pharmacare program, and Canadian complicity in denying life-saving drugs to developing countries.
OTTAWA--Contrary to misleading government assurances, Canada's health care system is not fully protected from international trade agreements, namely, NAFTA and the WTO. But, if Canadian governments act soon, they can still strengthen Medicare before trade-deal threats make health care reforms too costly.
Those are the main conclusions of a major report to the Romanow Commission on the Future of Health Care prepared under the auspices of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.