Canada Just Threw A Grenade Into Elizabeth Warren's Trade Fight With Obama

[eridani]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/14/canada-volcker-rule_n_7285098.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592

Canadian Finance Minister Joe Oliver gave a speech in New York arguing that the Volcker Rule -- a key tenet of the 2010 banking law -- violates the North American Free Trade Agreement. The move underscores Warren's warning that such deals, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership that Obama is currently negotiating, jeopardize financial reform.

The Volcker Rule bars banks operating in the U.S. from speculating in securities markets for their own profit -- a risky activity that can put taxpayers on the hook for big bailouts if the bank bets turn sour. But there are exceptions to the rule. For instance, banks are allowed to hold U.S. government debt in their own accounts.

But those same banks aren't allowed to trade in Canadian government debt. Oliver thinks that's a NAFTA violation. Although he didn't lay out his argument in detail on Wednesday, NAFTA, like the TPP, generally bans countries from discriminating against each other's financial services. NAFTA prohibits policies that limit cross-border trade in financial services and requires the U.S. to treat Canadian companies the same way that it treats U.S. companies.

[stillwaiting]

1. Huge kick. These trade agreements have been horrible for a long time.

And, they don't need to be.

STOP packing them with tons of regulations that you can't pass through normal legislative channels. ALL politicians that vote to approve TPA/TPP/TTIP/etc. are responsible for the horrible changes that empower corporations while also stripping our governments of more fundamentally democratic modes of governance.

[Octafish]

2. Gee. Why would anyone want to use US Taxpayer dollars to finance their fun at the casino?

Global Casino.

[fasttense]

3. I thought something like this would happen

I have heard from several sources that a WTO GAT agreement violated the Glass-Steagall act. That the Gramm Leach act was passed to repeal Glass-Steagall. So then the US was in compliance with the WTO agreement.

Then the Volker rule was passed and the US was again not in compliance. I was wondering what would happen. It seems a lot of these trade deals do not comply with US law. And we are changing our laws to comply with these deals. You would think our politicians would NOT sign onto trade deals that were in violation of our own laws.

[A Little Weird]

4. Good question

[div class="excerpt"; background-color:#CCCCCC;"]
"If our trading partners are already invoking existing U.S. trade pacts to issue clear threats against Wall Street reform, why would we undertake an unprecedented expansion of this trade model's threat to financial stability by fast-tracking TPP and TTIP?" asked Ben Beachy, research director at Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch.

[peacebird]

5. So did the WTO be banning the US rule requiring country of origin labels on meat....

How long til they do same with veggies? I buy organic, but refuse to purchase Melissa's 'organic' frozen veggies from China.... Somehow I don't trust them to really be organic, dunno, maybe it's remembering the melamine put into formula so it would test as high protein? Nope, do not trust them to actually BE organic.