ISDS Case Map
Canada
With Canada's labour movement searching for alternative economic models for a post-crisis, climatically unstable world, the government's new trade and investment pacts are barriers to a better future and must be resisted.
This week, hundreds of negotiators from 11 Asia-Pacific countries descend on Ottawa as part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks, viewed as the next big free trade deal after the European pact known as CETA.
The Harper government’s vaunted free trade agenda is either a roaring success or hopelessly stalled — and given that government officials aren’t commenting, even experts in the field are having trouble deciding which.
Canadian Trade Minister Ed Fast said he will continue to lobby South African leaders about the benefits of bilateral investment treaties, despite their rejection of the idea. Canada signed a BIT with Burkina Faso this month and Fast announced this week that Madagascar is moving toward a similar deal with Canada.
After many delays, the CETA text could be finalized by negotiators within weeks. But in Europe, a messy fight over its ratification is just beginning, reports Canadian Centre for Policy Alternative's trade policy analyst Scott Sinclair.
Under CETA, Canada has agreed to empower the courts to apply provisional and precautionary measures that include seizure of assets, destruction of equipment, and freezing of bank accounts against someone suspected of intellectual property rights infringement -- that is, before any trial takes place. Plant Breeders’ Rights, which would be bolstered through Bill C-18, the Agricultural Growth Act, are included among the intellectual property rights covered by these measures.
It’s a repeat of the polarizing 2010 Canada-Colombia trade deal debate. Supporters find it obvious that expected increases in bilateral trade and investment can only improve lives in Honduras while opponents see a validation of the violent and undemocratic governance that’s prevailed in the country since a 2009 coup removed Manuel Zelaya.
Canada hopes the Narendra Modi government will take decisions on two vital agreements the Manmohan Singh government could not. The first, a comprehensive economic partnership agreement, or CEPA and the second on Bilateral Investment treaties, or BITs.
A court hearing on June 10 was the second attempt by the Hupacasath and their allies to claim Section 35 rights to be consulted over the Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA)
Canada and the European Union are struggling to finalize a multibillion-dollar trade pact six months after political leaders said it was sealed, an embarrassment for Brussels as it seeks a far bigger deal with the United States.
