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OTTAWA – The us government has confirmed it promises to sign the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal in a meeting in a few days in New Zealand.
But when it comes to ratification from the 12-country treaty, the Liberals continue to be perched squarely atop a fence.
“Just because it is too early to endorse the TPP, it is also too early to shut the doorway,” International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland wrote Monday within an open letter posted on her department’s website.
“Signing doesn’t equal ratifying…. Signing is only a technical step in the procedure, allowing the TPP text to become tabled in Parliament for consideration and debate before any ultimate decision is made.”
Only a majority vote in the home of Commons would make sure that Canada seals the offer, she added. She’s also requested an intensive, transparent study of the agreement by parliamentary committee.
In recent weeks, Freeland has conducted public consultations around the wide-ranging accord, which – if ratified – would also set new international rules for sectors beyond trade. Those other locations include ip, which worries some experts.
“It is clear that lots of feel the TPP presents significant opportunities, while others have concerns,” Freeland wrote.
“Many Canadians have not provided up their minds and much more have questions.”
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The minister has indicated the massive accord, including major economies such as the Usa and Japan, can’t be renegotiated.
Freeland said each country has as much as two years to think about ratification before making your final decision. She pointed out that by filling out the deal Canada could keep its status as a potential full partner in the agreement.
Trade ministers from the TPP’s partner countries happen to be invited to sign the deal on Feb. 4 in Auckland.
The former Conservative government announced an agreement-in-principle on the pact in October throughout the federal election campaign.
At time, then-prime minister Stephen Harper hailed the TPP as a deal that would give Canada use of an enormous market of nearly 800 million people.
Harper warned Canada couldn’t manage to pass up on the agreement, an offer that received heavy criticism in part since the talks took place in secrecy.
The treaty can take effect whether it’s ratified by half the participating countries representing 85 per cent from the proposed trade zone’s economy.
It remains unclear, however, whether U.S. lawmakers will ratify the accord.
On Monday, Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose urged the federal government to aid the TPP to help Canada’s limping economy.
“Right now when Western Canada is hurting… the Trans-Pacific Partnership offers huge opportunities, especially in the business services sector and also the agricultural sector,” Ambrose said in Ottawa.
In a recent interview with The Canadian Press, Freeland recalled hearing people on sides of the TPP debate express their views during her cross-Canada consultations.
For example, she said she heard from groups representing farmers in Alberta and the Port of Vancouver that were very strongly in favour of TPP, an offer that would open new foreign markets for many Canadian firms.
On another hand, Freeland also heard concerns from Canadian and U.S. academics at a recent event at the University of Toronto. Several trade pros who addressed the conference criticized the TPP’s provisions on intellectual property and warned they’d be harmful for Canada.
Freeland has stated Canada must remain deeply attached to the global economy, particularly because the country boasts just the 11th-biggest economy on the planet.
“We are strongly in favour of free trade,” she said in the interview. “Having said that, we aren’t the government that negotiated the TPP.”
