CIPPIC Submission to Global Affairs on NAFTA

| July 18, 2017

CIPPIC's submission to Global Affairs Canada on the re-negotiation of NAFTA calls for transparency and caution.  CIPPIC's letter groups its recommendations under three broad categories:

  1. Transparency - NAFTA negotiations must avoid the mistakes of previous trade negotiations.  Consultation and participation should be broad and inclusive, not secretive and selective.
  2. Trade Negotiations are not a policy-making forum - Substantive law-making is the domain of legislatures in constitutional democracies like Canada.  Laws crucial to Canada's innovation and creativity framework must be made by Parliamentarians who are accountable to the electorate, not by the demands of foreign trade representatives at the negotiating table.
  3. Support our made-in-Canada approach - Canada should protect its made-in-Canada approach to innovation and new forms of creativity, while at the same time rejecting the expansion of copyright law and the out-sourcing of enforcement to the state.  

Consultations continue - Canadians are encouraged to participate at the Global Affairs Canada site.