Mr. Speaker, I hear the Conservatives reacting, as they normally do. None of them have read the agreement. There is not a single word in the entire text that deals with money laundering or the tax haven status. It is appalling. This is a symbol of a completely dysfunctional trade policy pushed by the Conservatives and supported, as we have seen every time, by the Liberal Party of Canada.
The Conservatives will say that by doing this they are actually contributing to the growth of our export industries.
The NDP has pushed for fair trade rules. We are the only national party speaking out against the hemorrhaging in our manufacturing sector, the loss of half a million good-paying manufacturing jobs. We are the only national party speaking out against the chronic under-financing of our major exporting industries.
I am pleased to say that this week some of the export associations have finally heeded our call. They are actually going to go to the government, with the support of the NDP, to get substantial increases in product promotion support.
Why? Because Canada, quite frankly, just plays lip service to exports. We have a trade minister who loves to cut ribbons and sign fancy agreements that do not deal with the fundamental issues.
Let us compare what Canada invests to support our export industries abroad with what other countries spend. We spend $12 million to $13 million in product promotion. Australia spends half a billion dollars. The European community spends $125 million for their wine export sector alone. That is 10 times what we spend for all industries right across the board. For the United States market, our most important trading partner, we spend $3 million or $4 million, which is the equivalent of promotion support for marketing a medium-sized enterprise in the lower mainland of British Columbia. We do that as a nation for the entire U.S. market.
The Conservatives, on the one hand, love these camera opportunities and these signatures but have done absolutely nothing to stimulate export growth.
What has been the result? If the Conservatives say that, although their actions might encourage some money laundering and drug pushing and use of tax havens, they are really doing this for exports, then they are going to have to explain that in this House. They have been mute so far in this debate. They have not spoken to these issues at all. In fact, it appears that they do not want to stand up and defend this deal. This should indicate to the public, those who are looking for work but have taken a brief break and are tuning in to CPAC today, that if the Conservatives are not willing to speak to the issue it is because they know that they do not have a leg to stand on, that they simply do not have any basis for supporting this dysfunctional deal.
If we look at the export figures, what do we see? If we move from the realm of inflation-devalued current dollars to constant dollars, which actually reflects a constant value over time, what we see is that after we sign these bilateral trade deals our exports actually go down. Let me cite a few examples.
With Israel, before we implemented a free trade agreement, we had exports of $270 million a year. In 2003, seven years later, we had gone from $270 million to $239 million in exports. What is wrong with this picture?
It was the Liberal government at the time that starved our export industries. But at the same time they had the big song and dance about how this was going to be terrific for our export industries. What happened? There was a decrease from $270 million to $239 million.
Let us look at another example.
I can see the Conservatives waking up now. They are saying, “Gee, nobody told us that. Gee, we should have done our homework., Gee, we should have actually looked at the export figures Maybe we'd know what we were talking about if we actually compared the figures”.
I am the glad the Conservatives are waking up, because these are important issues. We are talking about lost jobs. We are talking about half a million manufacturing jobs lost. We are talking about an actual net decrease in income for most Canadian families. The Conservatives have not understood that; the Liberals certainly did not. For 20 years, this so-called free trade regime has proven very costly to the average Canadian family.
These are important figures. I am glad they are taking note.
Look at Chile. We had $467 million in exports, before the implementation of the magic free trade agreement. Well, the exports to that market have gone from $467 million to $433 million. That is after the FTA, after the song and dance, after all of the pretensions about how this was going to stimulate our export industries, even though Liberals and Conservatives have done nothing to stimulate our export industries beyond the photo ops and signatures on bad trade deals. With Chile, after 10 years of free trade our exports were down.
Let us move on. I could continue. I will not cite the EFTA figures, because we already had this debate. It was the famous shipbuilding sellout. Since we signed that deal, our exports have gone down. There has been a huge decrease in the EFTA market, and yet we had Conservatives and Liberals standing in this House and saying this was going to be a magical day for Canada. Our exports went down the toilet.
At the same time, we opened up our shipbuilding industry, and it lost a large number of jobs. Here again is an example of the dysfunction and incompetence of the Conservative government when it comes to trade policy. It is dysfunctional.
They are not reflecting Canadian values. They are selling out human rights, our softwood industry, our shipbuilding industry. Then, as we sign the bilateral agreements, we see a decrease in exports to these markets .
The final bilateral agreement I will mention is the one with Costa Rica. We have talked about the others; let us talk about Costa Rica. I think it is an important one to flag.
There again we saw a decrease. We had $77 million in exports before the implementation of the deal. Seven years later, in 2009, we had gone from $77 million in exports to $73 million.
I rest my case. The Conservatives have strange pretensions. It does not matter about endorsing money laundering. Forget about that, Canadians. Do not worry about drug-pusher tax havens, and these fiscal paradises for the wealthy, where they do not have to pay taxes as ordinary Canadians do. Do not worry about that, because we know what we are doing.
Clearly, they do not. In case after case, our exports to those markets, after we sign these FTAs, go down, not up. They fluctuate up and down, it is true. However, in case after case, we see that in constant dollars our exports to those markets have gone down.
The Conservatives might even be forced to admit that the exports went down, and that we are selling out human rights and the softwood industry. If so, however, they are giving a rubber stamp to drug-pusher money launderers.
But what about Canadians' incomes? They have gone up, right? Well, unfortunately, even that is not true.
Statistics Canada has essentially told us what has happened to middle-class and poor Canadians since 1989, since these free trade pacts came in, which in almost all cases have led to a decline in our exports to those markets.
We have the most recent figures. What has happened to the poorest Canadians? The poorest Canadians, viewed in terms of market income, have neither gained nor lost. Fortunately, that is because of the advocacy of the NDP, which has worked to ensure that some social programs have been maintained.
What about the middle class, the hard-working people who support their families and pay their taxes? Well, the second-income category has actually seen a 5% reduction in real income over the last 20 years. What is 5%? It is like going without a paycheque for a couple of weeks a year. This has happened on the watch of the Liberals and Conservatives over the last 20 years.
We were told that these so-called free trade agreements would not be costly to the Canadian middle class and poorer Canadians. It would not be costly for manufacturing jobs. It would not cost us a bit. Well, it has been extremely costly. It has hit middle-class Canadians hard. Even the upper middle class has seen a net reduction in real income.
If we think about that, it is very sobering. We have heard all the pretensions, spin, and flim-flam from Liberals and Conservatives about their having some idea of how to make sure we stimulate export growth and family incomes. Then we look at the hard facts. None of these facts have been studied by Liberals or Conservatives, because they do not even track this stuff. They do not track going in what the economic impacts will be on these trade deals, and they do not track going out what has actually happened. There is no tracking at all. It is simply a photo op.
We have a trade agreement that is negotiated badly, written badly and does not deal with any of the real issues. Then there is a photo op and the minister goes on his next little trip. There is no evaluation, no homework, and no sense of what the real impacts have been on ordinary Canadians.
There is, however, one group of people that has benefited over the last 20 years. Their income growth has skyrocketed by 25%. Corporate CEOs and lawyers now take 52% of all income in the country. Income has gone down for the middle class and stagnated for the very poor, but the very rich are taking a huge and ever larger piece of the pie. A hefty 52% is now going to the very wealthy. Yes, they will support these trade agreements. They move their money offshore. They invest in low-wage factories. They can afford to. However, government should be looking to stimulate the Canadian economy.
Government should be looking to make sure middle-class Canadians are taken care of. They say that through hard work poor Canadians can raise their living standard, that over time there will be progress, and that we can build local economies where small businesses thrive as we forge a national economy where nobody is left behind. But exactly the contrary has occurred over the last 20 years, because Conservatives and Liberals in the House are simply not doing their homework.
What have we in the NDP been proposing? We have been making proposals like many of our allies in places like the U.S. Congress, which now has a fair trade act before it. It was interesting to note the comments of the Minister of International Trade in Europe when he said free trade was looked down on there. He is right, because Europe is trying to move to a more progressive trade model.
This is perhaps a discussion for another day, but we have a completely dysfunctional approach to negotiations with the European Union. We went to them and said we were going to sacrifice supply management. Supply management is on the table. We sold out the softwood lumber industry in northern Canada, northern Ontario, and B.C. We sold out our shipbuilding industry on both coasts. What can we sell out this time? Let us sell out the prairie farmers in the west, farmers in Ontario and Quebec, rural Canadians. We have a dysfunctional trade approach with the European Union, and we are saying that this time it is farmers who have to pay.
We in the NDP are saying a fair trade model has to be put into place. We are saying that what we need to do is economically boost all Canadians and make sure nobody is left behind.
This Panama trade deal, this drug-pusher, money-laundering, tax haven, fiscal paradise act does not do it. The government did not do its homework. It shows a complete lack of regard for the valuable opinions of the Canadian public. We have a dysfunctional government that is trying to foist a bad policy on Canadians without having done its homework. That is why in this corner of the House we will be voting yes for the hoist motion and no to this bill.