This week the International Trade Committee in the European Parliament voted with a majority in favour of the free trade agreement between Canada and the European Union. The decisive vote in the plenum is expected to take place mid-February.

 

The Austrian Trade Union Federation (Österreichischer Gewerkschaftsbund, ÖGB) and the Austrian Federal Chamber of Labour (Bundesarbeitskammer, BAK) feel that the text of the CETA treaty is not ready for approval in its current form. The attempts to make improvements using the joint interpretative instrument and 38 unilateral declarations from the Council, the Commission and Member States are to be welcomed. Ultimately, however, they are not sufficient and do not change the content of the CETA treaty.

The European Union is currently negotiating a number of trade agreements, including most notably the infamous TTIP with the US and – a bit less in the centre of public attention – the plurilateral TiSA. While negotiations on TTIP and TiSA are ongoing, the CETA negotiations have been finished in August 2014, leading to the official publication of the draft agreement in September 2014. While the agreement is not yet binding under international law, it offers a solid starting point for evaluating potential effects on the provision of public services.

In late 2016, a decision will be made by the Council of the European Union whether tolaunch the ratification process of the free trade agreement between the EU and Canada(CETA). The European Commission (EC) is promoting the agreement with the prospects ofmore trade, stronger economic relations and job creation. However, studies on theeconomic impact of CETA report only marginal effects on GDP of 0.03% to 0.08% forthe whole of the EU. In other words, CETA is expected to generate a one-time income effectof around 20 EUR per EU citizen after a 10 years implementation period.

AK, ÖGB and DGB have published four new brochures on the trade and investment agreement between EU and Canada.Each folder deals with one of the following subjects:

CETA – NO PRIVILIGED RIGHTS TO SUE STATES FOR CORPORATIONS
Main criticism of many new trade agreements, which the EU is currently negotiating, is the privileged rights for corporations to sue states.

Main criticism of many new trade agreements, which the EU is currently negotiating, is the privileged rights for corporations to sue states.

Security of supply, jobs and quality of public services are at stake.

Democratic deficit - parliaments are ignored. Regulatory cooperation between the EU and Canada will be held in transatlantic forums.

The eight ILO Core Labour Standards have to be ratified, transposed into national law and effectively applied.

The impact of international trade agreements on public services has been a controversialsubject for a number of years. Generally, the obligations of trade agreements have thepotential to limit the ability of governments to choose freely between different regulatoryinstruments and techniques for the organisation and provision of services considered to beessential for the general public such as network communications, energy and waterdistribution, education, health and social services.