CETA, the latest "free trade" boondoggle, negotiated by the Harper gang but now fully embraced by the Justinians, has been dealt a hopefully fatal blow by the Belgian state of Wallonia.
Trade agreements are so beloved by Canada's opinion makers that it has for a long time been deemed unnecessary to explain WHY these deals are good for us. They just are.
CETA offers little or nothing in gains for the average Canadian, but brings a whole lot of risks.
CETA will open up labour mobility for Canadian workers!
In fact, that will be Canada's biggest "win" under the agreement.
Whoopee!
Yup, Canadian workers will be able to collect those massive EU paycheques our brothers and sisters in France and Germany take home!
Only one problem with that scenario; why would an employer in a high wage EU country hire Canadians, when they've got ready access to workers from EU members like Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, and Slovakia, where wages are typically less than half of what they are here or in Western Europe?
They wouldn't.
But under CETA Canadian employers would have access to those eastern European workers.
CETA also opens up government infrastructure programs to foreign companies. So, in the event that Toronto ever gets around to letting contracts on that $3 billion one-stop subway line Mayor John Tory has been touting, there's nothing to prevent a EU conglomerate from bidding on the contract and then building it with Bulgarian labour.
And this is a good deal for Canadian workers?
Get the fuck outta here!
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