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Adam Chapnick: Trade rhetoric trips up Conservatives

Six weeks ago, as it became increasingly clear that Canadian officials and negotiators from the European Union had all but agreed upon the final details of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), the Conservative government launched an aggressive, partisan campaign to differentiate its trade policies from those of the opposition.

Labelled “The Oppositions’ Radical Anti-Trade Agenda,” on the Conservative party’s website, the prime minister’s office boasted that “Our Conservative government has signed free trade agreements with a record 38 countries,” while the NDP had opposed them all.

(The Opposition was quick to respond, noting, among other things, that 28 of those 38 countries were part of just one negotiation, CETA, and that those discussions were not even finished.)

The Conservative government deserves real credit for its commitment to negotiate free trade with the EU, and its desire to reap political gain from the deal is understandable.

The deliberations clearly have not been easy, and the economic benefits that the agreement should make possible will not be evident in Canada for a number of years, leaving the Conservatives with little tangible proof of success going into the next general election.

Nonetheless, recent revelations that the member states of the European Union have yet to agree to a process to ratify CETA suggest that the Conservatives’ rather flimsy claim to have signed agreements with the 28 European countries individually could threaten the completion of the deal altogether.

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/politics/adam-chapnick-trade-rhetoric-trips-up-conservatives