It’s all over but the counting.
On June 14, the House of Commons is expected to approve legislation implementing the Canada-Colombia free trade agreement signed in 2008.
It will then go to the Senate.
The end of the Commons debate comes after many months of acrimony and delay orchestrated by the Bloc Québécois and New Democratic Party caucuses.
Critics denounced the agreement as a deal with a brutal regime that supports oppression and violence against trade unions and opponents of the government.
Most farm groups and exporters disagreed. They have supported the deal as an opportunity to sell tens of millions of dollars worth of wheat, meat and pulse crops into a growing market.
Supporters include the Canadian Wheat Board.
The deal would eliminate tariffs on wheat that put Canadian exports at a disadvantage compared to duty-free Argentine exports. The United States has also signed a deal offering tariff-free access, but it is mired in congressional debate.
Canada exports $135 million worth of high-end wheat and barley to Colombia annually and expects that to increase sharply under the agreement.
“We urge all MPs to support this deal and ensure that western Canadian farmers do not lose sales opportunities to their U.S. and Argentine competitors,” CWB president Ian White said earlier this year when the bill was reintroduced to the Commons.
Liberal and Conservatives are expected to support the legislation in a vote scheduled for late Monday afternoon.
With no NDP or BQ senators, the legislation is expected to receive quick passage into law. However, with Parliament expected to rise for the summer by late June and possibly as early as late next week, it is unclear if it will become law before summer.
The bill made it through the Commons only because the Conservative government imposed closure, cutting off debate June 11 and forcing a vote Monday.
Peter Julian, the British Columbia New Democrat who led the fight against the bill, insisted that many hours of debate in the Commons and committee were insufficient and that critical voices from Canadian labour and Colombian opponents had been ignored.
“This is a failed minister with a failed policy,” he said in the Commons during the final day of debate, referring to trade minister Peter Van Loan.
The minister, in turn, accused the NDP of opposing the bill because it opposes trade and the Colombian government rather than on the merits of the trade deal.
“They’ve never seen a trade deal they didn’t oppose.”
Julian called it a deal with butchers.
He also argued that the value of trade with a country declines when measured in constant dollars after Canada signs a free trade deal.
The Mexico-Canada trade relationship after the North American Free Trade Agreement is the only one that has produced a trade increase, he added.
Jason Langrish, executive director of the Canada-Europe Roundtable for Business, challenged Julian that claim during a June 10 international trade committee meeting.
“I would be curious to know where your statistics of free trade agreements leading to national trade decreases have come from.”
