Canada keeps signing free trade deals, and few people seem to mind

[TexasTowelie]

One of the few issues on which Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have agreed is their opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (although Trump disagrees that Clinton opposes it). Their positions reflect the significant skepticism that many Americans have toward free trade.

But step across the northern border, and there’s a very different outlook. Canada has been busily pursuing free-trade agreements under both Conservative and Liberal governments, with minimal opposition.

On Sunday, just days before he celebrates his first year in office as Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau signed a massive economic and trade agreement with the European Union that will give Canada access to a market of more than 500 million people in 28 countries, with a combined GDP of more than $16 trillion.

Trudeau’s Liberal government has also set its sights on trade deals with China and India, and supports the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, which Stephen Harper’s Conservative government signed last October before losing the federal election.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/world/mexico-americas/la-fg-canada-trade-20161030-story.html

[Hoyt]

1. I have been wondering how Trudeau would come down on trade after being elected.

Here, we want to isolate ourselves thinking it is in our long-term interest to trade among ourselves or something.

We'll sit here while the rest of the world passes us by if we are not careful. See what chance we have to pay for universal health care, education, jobs, guaranteed income, etc., trading among ourselves long-term.

Yeah, I know, corporations can sue "sovereign" nations in a tribunal. I bet those same tribunals are in Canada's agreement as they have been in darn near every trade agreement worldwide since 1959. And the tribunals are not skewed in a favor of corporations, look who wins most of them.