Thank you, Mr. Chair.
With me today is Jean Dalcé, who is an economist at the CSN. We thank you for allowing us to take part today in the TPP consultations. We will set out the main reasons we think the TPP is a bad agreement for Canada and, as a result, why Canada should not ratify it.
First, the negotiation process has proven to be opaque. This enormous lack of transparency disrespects our democratic values.
Second, the TPP includes the investor-state dispute settlement mechanism, the ISDS, which enables companies to sue governments when the public policies put in place impede their investments, be they policies intended to protect public health, public services, the environment or working conditions. Canada is the developed country with the highest number of lawsuits in the world. In 2015, it was sued for over $6 billion under the ISDS, and most of these complaints, which may well be paid out through our taxes, involve the environment. The ISDS limits the ability of our governments to make legislation on matters of public interest, but it also deters the adoption of new policies. But Canada is proud of the changes we have managed to make to the comprehensive economic and trade agreement with the European Union on this, but these changes aren't in the TPP, which can no longer be amended.
While the Canadian government just signed the Paris climate agreement, it allows multinationals to influence, if not define, the country's environmental standards through the TPP.
Third, the TPP doesn't contain any binding measures on the environment or human rights. Canada should use a TPP to promote decent work with some signatories, including Vietnam, Malaysia and Mexico, where labour rights are systematically violated. In addition, aside from basic labour rights, no reference is made to other human rights. We think it is unacceptable in 2016 that we are not protecting the rights of indigenous peoples or the rights of communities regarding natural resource development.
We are concerned about the repercussions of the TPP on our manufacturing sector. Canada's trade balance has been steadily deteriorating in recent years. The Canadian economy is characterized by an expansion of exports of raw materials and a decline in exports of manufactured goods. We think that the TPP would put increased pressure on the manufacturing sector, which is already deteriorating, while exports of manufactured goods from countries in East Asia are growing steadily.
With the elimination of tariffs, our products are more likely to become less competitive than goods produced by other TPP countries. The example of the trade agreement signed with South Korea is a very good illustration of this. Our exports dropped by 3.9% one year after we signed the agreement, while imports of Korean goods increased by 10%.
With the arrival of these new players, we also fear having more and more difficulty on the U.S. market. The TPP certainly has the potential to encourage the export of our agri-food products, including pork, maple syrup, fruit juice, beef and so on, but overall, we think it will have a negative impact on our trade balance.
Lastly, in the cultural sector and in the area of public services, once again, this was illustrated by predecessors. We think that any new service may be threatened in this regard, too.
In conclusion, the CSN cannot support a trade agreement that gives multinational corporations the right to sue governments, that threatens our public services and our culture, and that would be signed with governments where human rights and union rights are systematically violated. The way these agreements have been negotiated and their evolving nature is really plunging us into total obscurity, while we are going to live with the consequences of many aspects in the decades to come. Obviously, we find this situation completely unacceptable.