The Canada Trade Agreement Secretariat has an open comment process on the TPP -- and we've set up a quick-and-easy form for you to submit your comments through on the right!
Here are some points you can add to your submission to the Trade Agreements and NAFTA Secretariat. Feel free to use any or none of these points -- the more you can write the letter in your own words, the more powerful it will be.
The TPP is an ambitious free trade agreement, with a far-reaching scope in respect of the environment, biodiversity and climate change.
The TPP could restrict the ability of future governments to legislate for the good of the environment.
Leaked details of the TPP reveal that foreign investors and firms could sue Canada in private international tribunals outside of our legal system if their parliaments or local councils pass laws that reduce their profits or adversely affect their businesses.
Trade deals like the secretive and extreme Canada-China FIPA and TPP use investor-state dispute settlement, which allows unaccountable, for-profit arbitrators the right to decide the fate of laws in Canada designed to protect our families, environment and future.
While representatives of major corporations have access to the text, democratically elected members of parliament, advocacy organizations for the environment and ordinary citizens are being shut out.
The TPP could constrain efforts to regulate the exploitation of the tar sands, and as such it has profound environmental impacts for Canada. It could also dramatically increase exports of bitumen and liquefied natural gas to overseas markets without any domestic oversight.
As the TPP is being negotiated in secret, the texts of the chapters are also secret. How can Canadians comment on the environmental impacts of a secretive trade deal that the government refuses to release the text of? The text should be available to the public immediately.
Governments, including the US, have opened up to the public in the past by releasing the draft text of agreements. In 2001, all nine chapters of the Free Trade Area of the Americas Agreement were released. This was called an 'important step' that would make the trade negotiation process 'more transparent and accessible'. Why can the Canadian government not meet the same standard for public accountability as practiced in 2001?