Hi Canada, F*** you, greetings Wallonia

Principis · October 24, 2016

https://www.euractiv.com/section/trade-society/news/wallonia-rejects-eu-ultimatum-over-ceta/

I just wanted to know what you guys think. (Especially Canadians)

Ziggy114 · October 24, 2016

I think this thing is really complicated and my thoughts really depend on what perspective I'm trying to look at it from... but for me personally I don't think this agreement was going to make much difference one way or another, so honestly I'm not sure I care whether it goes through or not. A Canadian farmer would probably have a different, perhaps more emotional opinion about it, but to them the failure of this agreement would represent a missed business opportunity. To me it doesn't.

It's not like the issues Wallonia has with CETA are new or even isolated to CETA... similar complaints exist over here when it comes to the TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership) and what it will do to Canada's sovereignty over its own laws and regulations, or the establishment of international trade courts that will allow corporations to sue our government when regulatory changes affect their bottom line, or domestic producers having to compete with foreign ones with potentially much lower operating costs... Heck, in at least one example it's even the same industry complaining - our dairy farmers aren't keen on competing under the TPP because of how our industry is structured vs. other countries citing substantial differences in operating costs, that prices will be be driven down below what's economically viable, "it will kill the Canadian dairy industry"... Sound familiar?

Generally I'm not a fan of agreements like these, but only because they seem to benefit the few significantly more than the many. Economists are quick to point out that trade agreements boost the economies of all countries involved, helping them grow more quickly than they would have otherwise (NAFTA is a popular example here), but just because a country's economy has grown doesn't necessarily mean that everyone in that country is now better off. The economic benefit tends to be concentrated at the top and the average person may or may not notice an appreciable difference, at least not one they could easily attribute to the agreement anyway. Trickle-down economics hasn't proven very effective in the past, why would that change now? If wealth inequality weren't such a huge problem already my opinion might be different here.

But with all that said, this thing is complicated and there will probably be much wider implications beyond this one agreement. I suppose we'll see what happens, eh?

Ziggy114 · October 25, 2016

Maybe that was a little more than you were looking for... what are your thoughts on the whole thing?

Also, if you're interested, I just read a good article by a Canadian law professor that gives an impartial and far more educated (but still readable) perspective on the whole thing... TL;DR: It's probably not the lowering of trade barriers like tariffs that people have a problem with, it's all the other stuff. I can't say I blame them.

http://www.michaelgeist.ca/2016/10/the-devil-is-in-the-details-ceta/