Niagara At Large is posting the following from an October 6th, 2015 Brock University Media Release
“You can be for it, or against it, but just don’t call it a free trade agreement.”
So says Brock international relations expert Blayne Haggart on Monday’s signing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
Trade deal could mean “windfall” for producers and sellers of pharmaceutical drugs
The TPP would form the world’s largest trading bloc covering some 800 million consumers. Its members still need to ratify and sign the agreement.
“While the deal commits its 12 member countries to reduce or eliminate tariffs across sectors of the economy, it reportedly includes many provisions that go far beyond traditional trade concerns,” says Haggart, assistant professor in the Department of Political Science.
Haggart says that the virtues of “free trade” itself are unquestioned in mainstream policy circles. Free trade is based on the theory of “comparative advantage,” which holds that countries should produce and export the goods and services they’re most efficient at, resulting in lower prices.
“But a lot of what’s in this Trans-Pacific Partnership literally has nothing to do with the principle comparative advantage, which means it can’t be legitimated by saying it’s a ‘free trade’ agreement” he says.
He points to the agreement’s reported intellectual property provisions as being a “windfall” for pharmaceutical and digital industries in particular, saying that stronger intellectual property provisions are actually a “de facto trade barrier.” While free-trade agreements are supposed to reduce prices, stronger intellectual property protections actually make products like drugs more expensive.
Haggart also raises concerns about the agreement’s reported investor-state dispute mechanism, which essentially would allow foreign companies to sue countries for various reasons. “This could have a negative effect on the quality of our democracy.”
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Niagara At Large 
We no longer have anything to sell, NAFTA already took all of our good paying jobs. sorry TPP we gave it all away already.
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George
I don;t remember the number of suits against Canada during the life of NAFTA but there were too many and because of this and other so called trade agreements instituted by the corporate Conservative governments were find our sovereignty sold out to the global markets. Canadian values have been put on the trading block and the only reason is to enhance the bottom line on international corporate profit and loss statements.
The common Canadian had no say when these corporate sponsored governments took it upon themselves to fall in step to the demands of CORPORATE CANADA and to hell with what you might say or do…in reality you do not matter and neither does your children or grand children..Until these money lenders are thrown out of our lives we will not matter….I am closing in on 80 years and it should NOT MATTER to me Should it??? ..I hate what is happening every day to you, to me , to our Children and Our Grandchildren….and why because Corporations NOW have more rights than you or I…Believe it, the Right Wing Packed “Supreme Courts” have decreed and made it law.
There is a hell of a lot of money being spent in this election, mostly by the Corporate owned Conservatives and Liberals to brain wash you with TV spots and fool you with the name game but the agenda after the election if one of these two corporate parties wins will not be decided by you the agenda will be engineered to the specifications of the Corporate bosses in back rooms and board rooms. The NAME GAME you don’t hear is Ex MP John Manley a Liberal who was once also the acting Prime Minister of Canada is the Chairman of the Chief Executive Officers of Canada?????
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