The Liberal majority on the House of Commons international trade committee has endorsed Canada’s involvement in negotiations on a proposed treaty to protect foreign investors from government discrimination, without any recommendations to meet objections raised by farm representatives.
After public hearings last autumn, the committee majority issued a report in mid-December arguing Canada has no choice but to sign on to the Multilateral Agreement on Investment being negotiated in Paris.
“In order for Canada to retain its attractiveness as a recipient of foreign direct investment and to provide certainty for its investments abroad, it is important for Canada to negotiate a satisfactory multilateral agreement which both delivers these benefits and fully protects Canadian interests in such sensitive areas as culture, the environment, public and social services at all levels of government,” said the majority report.
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Reform agreed with the premise of an MAI, but objected to some of the Liberal conditions, including a demand that there be a “broad exemption for culture” and labor standards written into the agreement.
The New Democratic Party opposed the entire concept as a sellout to international corporations. Farmer unease expressed by Canadian Federation of Agriculture trade specialist Don Knoerr during a November appearance before the committee was not specifically reflected in the majority or minority reports.
Knoerr told MPs that while an MAI is inevitable and desirable, the proposed text must be changed to protect Canadian farm programs and marketing boards.
Policies in jeopardy
He said without changes to the proposed text being negotiated for a scheduled spring completion date, key Canadian agricultural policies such as price pooling, production-limiting marketing rules and central-desk selling could be opened to challenge as a restriction on foreign investment.
He said the definition of investment proposed for the treaty should be tightened to exclude investment in ‘licenses’ or ‘permits’, of the kind used to authorize some types of agricultural production.
And a clause being adopted from the North American Free Trade Agreement, which could restrict the dealings of monopolies like the Canadian Wheat Board in dealings with foreign investors, should be scrapped, said Knoerr.
In seeking rules to allow freer investment and to protect Canadian investment abroad, negotiators should not “inadvertently hamper our ability to maintain and establish programs, marketing structures and regulatory regimes important to our domestic interests.”
