I'm here as a regular Canadian citizen. I'd like to speak to two points that were brought up by that gentleman in particular and that lady.
At this point, I think most citizens around the world are increasingly concerned about these trade deals. While we all want strong countries and we all have established companies that have been trading, increasingly there are hidden multinational corporations.
You said that America could pull out their car manufacturers and send them to Mexico, and we could make these trade agreements and then find out that all of these corporations suddenly magically appear and there's no protection.
The American citizen is not aware that 80% of all drugs are exempt from legal liability. This is as passed by the U.S. Supreme Court. Eighty per cent of pharmaceutical drugs are exempt from legal liability. Our press did nothing to cover that. We were not informed about it.
Why is this important? Well, the gentleman here just spoke about our farmers. Monsanto has just acquired CRISPR, and then they're going to be bought out by Bayer. Bayer was found to be involved with AIDS-tainted drugs. You have an agricultural multinational corporation being bought by a huge pharmaceutical company, and we have no knowledge of how they can impact not only trade but also products that are increasingly dangerous. Our neighbours are wide open to adverse health effects that are, increasingly, warnings of heart attacks, internal bleeding, and things that we're not even aware of.
I am against this agreement simply because we want it investigated. Exactly what highest level of secretive corporate transnational deals are being made and how are we being protected?
Thank you.