Did Prime Minister Justin Trudeau buy the Trans Mountain Pipeline to avoid a trade complaint with China? Was it a contributing factor to the decision?
That is the question The Guardian asked, as Canada is bound by the agreement called the Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA), which stipulates that China will have benefits including an oil pipeline built between Alberta and BC to help fuel is rapid industrial growth.
FIPA was ratified in 2014 by the previous Conservative government under Stephen Harper, and it remains in place until 2045.
The agreement followed PetroChina’s 2009 purchase of 60% of the interest in two undeveloped oil sands projects, holding a combined volume of five billion barrels of oil.
Then in 2013, Chinese state-owned CNOOC acquired Nexen, Canada’s third largest oil-and-gas company, for $15.1 billion.
“Yet this FIPA is the sort of agreement that undermines the sovereignty of nations to the benefit of private interests,” wrote Bruce Livesey in The Guardian. “FIPAS are Canada’s name for bilateral investment treaties, which are frequently used by corporations around the world to challenge public policies or community decisions that interfere with their ability to make money.”
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