<p dir="ltr">Good petition.</p>
<p dir="ltr">But note, before writing your comment, that it says, "You are signed in as Neil Taylor ..." and you have to click to insert your identifying info.</p>
<p dir="ltr">I wish the protest groups would take up the issue of the trade deals urgently. So far I've had no luck persuading them!</p>
<p dir="ltr">Eleanor<br>
</p>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Jan 28, 2013 7:15 AM, "Neil E Taylor" <<a href="mailto:neiletaylor@sympatico.ca">neiletaylor@sympatico.ca</a>> wrote:<br type="attribution"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
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<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">We have just 4 days to flood the
Canada Trade Agreements Secretariat's public consultation process on a NEW
secretive trade deal Harper's trying to sneak through -- the Trans-Pacific
Partnership.<u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><strong><b><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Click through
to use our talking points and form to submit your comment -- and then make
sure all your friends and family do too.</span></font></b></strong><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"><u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"><a href="http://act.sumofus.org/go/1160?t=1&akid=1250.896239.V-YLQf" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration:none"><img border="0" width="200" height="60" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.sumofus.org/images/orange-SAM-fancy.png" alt="Send your public comment now."></span></a><u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
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<p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">In
just four days the Government of Canada will close its environmental assessment
into the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal. Surprised
you haven’t heard about it? Harper knows that <strong><b><font face="Arial"><span style="font-family:Arial">if the assessment doesn’t find significant
environmental impacts, they can just skip producing a draft report altogether
and move to the final report,</span></font></b></strong> so he's done
everything he can to keep this bad deal out of the press.<u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">This
deal is just another in a list of predatory trade deals the Harper government
is trying to ram through to <strong><b><font face="Arial"><span style="font-family:Arial">protect tar sands development and safeguard corporate profits at the
expense of the rest of us.</span></font></b></strong> Harper thinks he can
sneak this deal past us, but if we flood the process with comments, we can show
we’re paying attention.<u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">We've
made it <strong><b><font face="Arial"><span style="font-family:Arial">fast and
easy to submit your comment</span></font></b></strong> through our form, and
there are even talking points on the page to get you started. We need as many
of us as possible to write in now, before the comment period closes on
Wednesday.<u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"><a href="http://act.sumofus.org/go/1160?t=2&akid=1250.896239.V-YLQf" target="_blank"><b><font><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-weight:bold">Click here to submit an
email to the Canada Trade Agreements Secretariat, and then make sure all your
friends and family do too.</span></font></b></a><u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p><strong><b><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Right now corporate lawyers are busy drafting a treaty that Canadians
and our own MPs can't even read! </span></font></b></strong><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">The Harper
government is hoping to be able to point to this public consultation as proof
the process has been transparent -- he will argue that no one is worried about
environmental impacts of the TPP and just move forward with no more
opportunities for public comment.<u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">The
TPP trade deal contains at least 26 chapters that would have a fundamental
impact on the environment, the economy, jobs, access to affordable medicines,
and much more. <strong><b><font face="Arial"><span style="font-family:Arial">The
deal will give corporations the right to acquire land, natural resources, and
factories without government review, and will allow corporations to be
compensated for environmental laws that damage profits.</span></font></b></strong> <u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">With
just four days to go before the environmental assessment ends, we have a
key moment to show the Harper government we’re paying attention.<u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"><a href="http://act.sumofus.org/go/1160?t=3&akid=1250.896239.V-YLQf" target="_blank"><b><font><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-weight:bold">Can you add your comment
now to the Canadian government’s environmental assessment on TPP? We’ve got
everything you need to get started.</span></font></b></a><u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Look,
no one thought we could keep Harper from ratifying the secretive and extreme
Canada-China FIPA deal. But so far we have, because nearly 20,000 people from
the SumOfUs.org community submitted comments to the environmental assessment.
Now the TPP is coming, and in many respects, it could be even worse than FIPA.
So let's use our power to raise the profile of the TPP, like we did FIPA, and
stop it in its tracks by flooding the environmental assessment with our
comments.<u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Thanks
for all you do,<u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Emma,
Ivan, Kaytee, Rob and the rest of us at SumOfUs.org <u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"> <u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p><strong><b><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">**********</span></font></b></strong><b><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold"><br>
<strong><b><font face="Arial"><span style="font-family:Arial">More Information</span></font></b></strong></span></font></b><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"><u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p><strong><b><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">What is the Trans-Pacific Partnership? Who is participating?</span></font></b></strong><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"><br>
The Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership is a multilateral free trade
agreement that aims to further liberalize the economies of the Asia-Pacific
region. Currently, 13 countries are party to the negotiations including the
Canada, the United States, Mexico, Australia, <u></u>Brunei<u></u>
<u></u>Darussalam<u></u>, <u></u>Chile<u></u>,
<u></u>Malaysia<u></u>, <u></u>New Zealand<u></u>, <u></u>Peru<u></u>,
<u></u>Singapore<u></u>, and <u></u><u></u>Vietnam<u></u><u></u>. <u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p><strong><b><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">What provisions are in the treaty?</span></font></b></strong><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"><br>
Under the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) "free trade" agreement,
corporations would gain an array of privileges:<u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<ul type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Rights to acquire land, natural resources,
factories without government review<u></u><u></u></span></font></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Elimination of risks and costs of off-shoring to
low wage countries <u></u><u></u></span></font></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Compensation for loss of “expected future
profits” from environmental laws<u></u><u></u></span></font></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Right to move capital without limits<u></u><u></u></span></font></li>
</ul>
<p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">The
TPP will impose a set of extreme foreign investor privileges and rights and
their private enforcement through the notorious “investor-state” system. Under
this regime, foreign investors can skirt domestic courts and laws, and sue
governments directly before tribunals of three private sector lawyers operating
under World Bank and UN rules to demand taxpayer compensation for any domestic
law that investors believe will diminish their "expected future profits”.<u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"> <u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p><strong><b><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">**********</span></font></b></strong><b><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold"><br>
<strong><b><font face="Arial"><span style="font-family:Arial">Further <u></u><u></u>Reading<u></u><u></u></span></font></b></strong></span></font></b><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"><u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"><a href="http://act.sumofus.org/go/1161?t=4&akid=1250.896239.V-YLQf" target="_blank">Notice of
Intent to Conduct an Environmental Assessment of the Trans-Pacific Partnership
Free Trade Agreement</a>, <em><i><font face="Arial"><span style="font-family:Arial">Foreign Affairs and International Trade <u></u><u></u>Canada<u></u><u></u>.</span></font></i></em><u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"><a href="http://act.sumofus.org/go/1162?t=5&akid=1250.896239.V-YLQf" target="_blank">TPP:
Another Flawed, Hush Hush Trade Deal Secrecy the standard as Canada enters
Pacific treaty talks</a>. <em><i><font face="Arial"><span style="font-family:Arial">The Tyee</span></font></i></em>. <u></u><u></u></span></font></p>
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