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Public invited to weigh in on Trans-Pacific in Richmond

International agreement will further free trade with Pacific nations, grant supranational legal rights to multinational corporations
TPP
Trans Pacific Partnership.

Richmond residents will get a chance to add their comments on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement at a public meeting Monday at the Radisson Hotel Vancouver Airport (8181 Cambie Road). The event, hosted by the federal government’s Standing Committee on International Trade, runs from 9:45 a.m. – 1:45 p.m. in the ballroom.

The TPP would create a free-trade zone among 12 nations around the Pacific, making it the world’s largest. The countries within its scope account for 40 per cent of the world’s economic output. 

In a joint statement from B.C. Premier Christy Clark and Richmond Centre MLA Teresa Wat, who is also B.C.’s minister of international trade, the pair congratulated the federal government for signing the deal.

 “The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement will benefit B.C. by increasing bilateral trade between North America and other Trans-Pacific Partnership markets, which supports economic growth and creates jobs right here at home,” their statement said.

“Canada does not currently have free trade agreements with many Trans-Pacific Partnership-member countries, so this agreement would provide unprecedented access to key BC Jobs Plan markets.” 

The 12 nations that negotiated the TPP are the U.S., Japan, Australia, Peru, Malaysia, Vietnam, New Zealand, Chile, Singapore, Canada, Mexico, and Brunei Darussalam.

Critics of the agreement argue the TPP would give foreign investors special rights to protect their assets by suing countries for compensation in the face of laws, regulations and other decisions that the foreign investor thinks are unfair.

These kinds of international rights are not available to domestic investors or anyone else, even in the most extreme situations of mistreatment.

Critics also argue that while the TPP gives powerful rights to foreign investors, it does not attach equally enforceable responsibilities to respect basic labour, environmental and anti-corruption standards, for example, where a country’s institutions fail to uphold such standards.