Every year Global Justice organises a speaker tour. This year’s has just been held. It started in Dundee and finished in Dublin, visiting 7 cities in the British Isles. The nearest the tour came to our group was Oxford where Tina Everett of that local group expertly chaired the event.
There were two visiting speakers from overseas. Maude Barlow is chair of the citizens’ group, the Council of Canadians. She spoke about CETA, The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement that has been negotiated between Canada and the EU and what its implications will be, based on Canada’s experiences of NAFTA, the North American Free trade Area. During 21 years of NAFTA two thirds of the legal challenges corporations make to Canadian regulations are on environmental issues. She explained how companies can set up subsidiaries in a country to take advantage of the option to use Investor Protection, ISDS that trade deals offer. Negotiations on CETA have been completed. It is currently being translated into more than 20 European languages. When it comes into force American companies will not have to wait for TTIP. They will be able to use their Canadian subsidiaries to sue for damages they claim result from regulations in Europe.
Yash Tandon, Ugandan trade expert and author of Trade is War, concentrated on the devastating effects on Africa of trade between that continent and the former imperial powers. Between 50 and 60 million Africans have been dispossessed of their land. Yash is clear that Economics as it is taught is not a discipline; it is an ideology. He said there are three possible responses to the injustices of corporatisation, pessimism, cynicism or activism. Cynicism is the worst. He supports short term and long term activism.
Guy Taylor of Global Justice spoke about TTIP and CETA. A common theme with these and other trade deals is allowing corporations to sue governments in secret courts over decisions they don’t like.
