Our thoughts on the renegotiation of NAFTA are welcome at Public consultations on the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the United States and Mexico
I have offered my thoughts as follows in my first submission:
In the "In your view" field, I said:
"The very highest priority for the Government of Canada in the renegotiation of NAFTA should be the removal of all provision for Investor/State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) through the International Centre for Settlement of Investor Disputes (ICSID) since:
•ISDS permits international corporations to sue Canada by tribunal outside of any national judiciary to overturn new law enacted out of our sovereign right to govern ourselves;
•ISDS suits get decided in secret trials without recourse to appeal, utter anathema to a free and democratic society, never open and public;
•The evil of ISDS lies in its capacity to defeat the sovereign right of nations, Canada included, to govern themselves by granting international corporations with investments in Canadian business the right to sue Canadian federal, provincial, and local governments in these SECRET TRIALS outside of the Canadian judicial system if new environmental, labour, health and safety, business practice, etc. law impinges on their investment;
•These secret ISDS trials exist in one direction only – international corporations may sue nations, Canada included, but nations may not sue international corporations – ISDS raises international corporations from their proper status as subjects of nations and welcome guests within Canada to superiors of nations;
•Decisions by ISDS tribunals are based solely on the impact new Canadian law may have upon a complainant corporation’s investment, with all other factors (environmental, labour, health and safety, business practice regulation, etc.) government must consider when drafting law, regarded as irrelevant to each case;
•Decisions by ISDS tribunals are based upon neither existing statutes of any kind nor active precedents, implying that Canadian governments cannot know, when preparing new law, if our actions may be subject to attack under ISDS and, thus, may feel need to clear any new law with international corporate boards of directors if Canada wishes to preclude attack by ISDS suits;
•The above four conditions transform international corporations from subjects of nations or welcome guests within Canada to, in effect, non-territorial kingdoms and reinforce the current dangerous trend corrupting Capitalism toward Capital Feudalism by which:
·Capital replaces land as the feu;
·International banking replaces the Church as the external power;
·Non-territorial international corporations replace kingdoms as the fundamental holders of the feu;
·Corporate CEOs replace kings as the authorities by which the feu gets distributed and to whom loyal attachment must return;
·Major corporate internal divisions and subsidiaries replace baronies, earldoms, dukedoms, counties, etc. as subordinate holders of the feu;
·Corporate vice presidents, very senior managers, and subsidiary CEOs replace the various Lords of the Realm;
·Corporate managers and highly skilled technical professionals replace knights;
·Contractors replace the freeman peasantry; and
·Ordinary common working people are reduced to the new serfs;
All while the role of sovereign nations and democratic decision making diminishes into insignificance, reducing Canada and participating nations to resource and labour colonies of international corporations;
•As a consequence of our participation in NAFTA as it currently exists, Canada is already the developed nation most frequently attacked with ISDS suits; and
•NAFTA is widely considered to be a template and precedent for many other so-called free trade (but in reality, international corporate protection) agreements in which Canada currently participates or are under negotiation with Canada’s participation."
In the "new issues" field, I said:
"When NAFTA was originally drafted, the Internet was barely a twinkle in the eye of citizens around the world. Now it is the central way we communicate and conduct commerce, innovate, create culture, and engage in political discussion and dissent. I have the impression that the American team is hoping to make big changes and they'll want use the failed TPP Intellectual Property Chapter, with its secretive processes driven by hordes of corporate lobbyists, as a blueprint for NAFTA to make our Internet more censored, expensive, and policed. It is essential that we get NAFTA wording that impacts the future of our Internet right to ensure that our pro-Internet policies are not undermined in this agreement."
In the "Other comments" field, I said:
"I urge that Canada requires:
•The sovereignty-deleting Investor/State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) through the International Centre for Settlement of Investor Disputes (ICSID) provision be wholly removed from a renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA);
•In place of ISDS, a renegotiated NAFTA provide that Canadian operations of international corporations which find themselves at issue with our governments at any level should bring the matter to an open and public Canadian court within the Canadian judicial system for decision under Canadian law in the same way as wholly domestic Canadian corporations and Canadian citizens must do; and
•Alternatively, in place of ISDS, a renegotiated NAFTA provide that, if an issue exceeds the competence of Canadian courts, an international corporation should openly and publicly request its home nation government (by home nation, I do not mean that nation within which an international corporation is chartered or locates its corporate head office; I mean that nation in which the plurality of the corporation's equity capital ownership resides) to pursue the matter in an open and public international court on a sovereign nation versus sovereign nation basis that clearly holds international corporations as subjects of sovereign nations and not as equals with, nor as masters of, sovereign nations."
In a second submission, I offered additional thoughts as follows:
In the "In your view" field, I said:
"A priority for the Government of Canada in the renegotiation of NAFTA must be for open and public negotiations. This government, in the last election, promised to be fully open with Canadians. NAFTA and for other so-called free trade agreement negotiations have been and continue to be conducted in secret by government trade negotiators with the exception that representatives of international corporations with interest in the effects of international trade are permitted access to these negotiators and to contribute to treaty development while:
•Wholly domestic Canadian businesses with an interest in how international trade may affect their own local business operations,
•Organizations concerned about environmental issues and how international trade may impact the Canadian and worldwide environment,
•Labour organizations with concerns about how international trade may affect working Canadians,
•Canadian agricultural organizations with concerns about Canadians’ capacity to feed ourselves while also trading internationally,
•Organizations attentive to health and safety issues and concerned with the effect of international trade on those issues, and
•Others with interest in the effect of international trade on Canadian society
are all prohibited the same access to Canada’s government trade negotiators."
In the "new issues" field, I said:
"In addition to the impact a renegotiated NAFTA may have on international corporations, the new treaty must also take into account its impact on:
•Wholly domestic Canadian businesses with an interest in how international trade may affect their own local business operations,
•Organizations concerned about environmental issues and how international trade may impact the Canadian and worldwide environment,
•Labour organizations with concerns about how international trade may affect working Canadians,
•Canadian agricultural organizations with concerns about Canadians’ capacity to feed ourselves while also trading internationally,
•Organizations attentive to health and safety issues and concerned with the effect of international trade on those issues, and
•Others with interest in the effect of international trade on Canadian society."
In the "Other comments" field, I said:
"If NAFTA renegotiation must be kept secret, then I urge that either:
•Representatives of international corporations with interest in the effects of international trade must be refused access to the negotiators or to contribute to treaty development, or
•Representatives of:
·Wholly domestic Canadian businesses with an interest in how international trade may affect their own local business operations,
·Organizations concerned about environmental issues and how international trade may impact the Canadian and worldwide environment,
·Labour organizations with concerns about how international trade may affect working Canadians,
·Canadian agricultural organizations with concerns about Canadians’ capacity to feed ourselves while also trading internationally,
·Organizations attentive to health and safety issues and concerned with the effect of international trade on those issues, and
·Others with interest in the effect of international trade on Canadian society
must be granted the same access to these negotiators and to contribute to treaty development as may be granted to representatives of international corporations."
