Good morning and thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'm Sujata Dey, trade campaigner, national, Council of Canadians.
I will be speaking to you in English.
I am here with Steven Shrybman, one of our board members, who practises international trade and public interest law. He's a partner at Goldblatt Partners LLP.
The Council of Canadians is the largest independent citizen group in Canada, with over 100,000 members. Our group has been on the forefront of a citizens' approach to trade agreements since 1985, with the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement.
We have many concerns about the TPP. We feel that it's not a trade pact, but a pact that helps set the rules for investors and actually has less to do with trade. We have not had a serious independent economic analysis of both the TPP and CETA. We have been asking, along with the Trade Justice Network, that the parliamentary budget officer analyze both agreements independently. Evidence from several economists right now says that despite a flurry of trade agreements, our actual trade deficit has increased. Our trade remains very concentrated in the United States, amounting to 75% of our trade.
Recently, the manufacturers' association said that, in their view, despite a flurry of trade agreements, the only trade agreement we've actually benefited from was the NAFTA. Obviously, we think differently. In fact, research done by Jim Stanford indicates that we have actually had more growth in exports with countries that we don't have free trade agreements with.
Much of the actual TPP agreement—24 of the 30 chapters—has nothing to do with traditional trade barriers. They are rules, and those that were not decided by our democracies. They came through a process that parliamentarians that did not have access to, but to which 600 U.S. lobbyists did. In particular, we also worry about how the TPP endangers the robustness of our democracies and our ability to set public policy.
ISDS mechanisms would make us vulnerable to suits from additional countries in the TPP. We are already the most-sued developed country in the world. We've lost $200 million in suits. This does put a public chill on your ability as legislators to set policy. In fact, the UN rapporteurs on human rights and indigenous peoples have come out against ISDS and the TPP.
However, it's not just the ISDS issue. It's also certification. Under the U.S. fast-track law, the U.S. gets to determine and even help write the implementing laws of other countries before their own obligations go into effect. The U.S. has done this in the past, in free trade agreements with Australia and with Peru. There are many politicians who have spoken about this, including former Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and other parliamentarians from TPP countries, mostly the non-U.S. TPP countries.
There's not a lot of time. We'll be presenting a brief as well, but we feel there's a need for an open debate and serious analysis, not just on the economics but on the political dimensions and the human rights and environmental aspects of this deal. We have just signed a declaration on indigenous rights. We've also signed a declaration at the Paris climate talks. Those are very important things to protect, and it's important to make sure that we can continue to protect them with the TPP. We need consultation not just on the TPP, but on CETA as well, where there seems to be no consultation.
This government is not the previous one, and it can and should act differently. Thank you.
Steven Shrybman now will present as well.