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Monday November 26, 2012 |
As International Trade Minister Ed Fast returns from negotiations in Europe that failed to secure a deal on the Canada - EU Trade Agreement, newly leaked documents to the CAQ and posted by LaPresse
provide a detailed look at the remaining outstanding issues with
details on the Canadian and European positions. The documents (1, 2, 3, 4)
make it clear that the EU recognizes the deal is unbalanced as there
are far more demands for Canadian changes than European ones. The EU
retains the hope that Canada will cave on the EU demands since "the EU
market to which it gains preferential access is much larger than its
own."
This ranks as perhaps the most important CETA leak to date, since it
clearly identifies the key remaining issues, the European demands, and
the massive changes that would be required for Canada to comply with the
treaty. Some of the changes demanded by Europe include patent reform
that could add billions to Canadian health care costs, the removal of
foreign ownership restrictions on telecommunications and book
publishing, the opening of public procurement for the energy and public
transport sectors, eliminating Investment Canada Act review for European
investments, new restrictions on the sale of a myriad of products such
as feta and parmesan cheese, changes to agricultural protections (ie.
supply management), and the adoption of European standards on passenger
cars. This would require dramatic changes across the Canadian economy,
all for what even the Europeans acknowledge are limited gains for
Canada.Given what is at stake, there needs to be an open debate and
consultation before an agreement is reached (which is no longer a
certainty) and Canada should be considering whether a scaled down
version of CETA - one that focuses primarily on a reduction of tariffs
for trade in goods - is a better model. A closer look at the some of the
remaining issues is posted below.
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Friday November 23, 2012 |
Canada's International Trade Minister Ed Fast traveled to Brussels
this week hoping to secure a deal on the Canada - EU Trade
Agreement. It looks like he'll be coming home empty handed as
the EU has issued a release
indicating that there are still gaps on key issues. The EU's take on
the talks:
Commissioner De Gucht and Minister Fast had in-depth discussions
on the trade deal and made substantial progress. Both sides will
now instruct their negotiators to narrow the gaps on the
outstanding issues, aiming for a deal in the coming weeks. "I am
pleased that our meeting at a political level has provided the
momentum needed to spur on the negotiations into the home strait.
It's clear that there has been significant progress but some
important work remains to be done", stated Commissioner De Gucht.
Both Commissioner De Gucht and Minister Fast decided to meet
again very shortly and to continue discussions until an agreement
is reached.
That is a far cry from a done deal with more "work to be done" and
the agreement going back to the negotiators for more talks.
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Monday June 13, 2011 |
As Canada and the European Union continue their negotiations on a trade
deal, a source has provided a copy of the EU proposal for the criminal
intellectual property provisions. The IP criminal provisions was the
one aspect left out of early drafts (the CETA leak from last year is available here). The
initial EU proposal uses the Anti-Counterfeiting
Trade Agreement's
criminal provisions as the model. This includes ACTA Article 23 on
Criminal Offences (criminal provisions for wilful trademark
counterfeiting or copyright piracy on a commercial scale), ACTA Article
24 on Penalties (including imprisonment), ACTA Article 25 on Seizure,
Forfeiture, and Destruction, and ACTA Article 26 on Ex Officio Criminal
Enforcement. Several of these provisions would require domestic
legislative change in Canada that were not found in Bill C-32
(suggesting that an IP enforcement bill will be introduced sometime in
the near future).
Much like in ACTA negotiations, the EU is rejecting the request for
inclusion of an anti-camcording provision in CETA. Canada enacted
anti-camcording measures under pressure from the U.S. several years
ago. The U.S. sought similar provisions in ACTA, but the EU ensured
that the provision was optional, not mandatory.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the EU criminal IP proposal is
the internal divide over whether it should extend beyond ACTA to create
an
ACTA+. According to documents I've seen, Italy has called for the
broadest possible scope for CETA, including geographical indications
(yes, criminal provisions for geographical indications). Despite the
fact that this extends well beyond ACTA, the Italian position is
supported by Portugal, Greece, France, Romania, and the Czech Republic.
In fact, the Czech Republic would also like to extend the criminal
provisions to designs. The UK, Austria, and Finland oppose extending
the provision beyond ACTA. The decision was ultimately made to start
by proposing the ACTA language and consider progress on the remaining
IP related
issues in CETA before escalating European demands.
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Wednesday March 16, 2011 |
The European Commission has commissioned a study
on the likely economic effects of the proposed Canada - EU Trade
Agreement. The report includes a detailed analysis on the likely
effects of the intellectual property provisions in the agreement.
According to the report, those provisions - which come largely as a
result of EU demands - would result in more dollars flowing out of
Canada and in increased Canadian consumer prices. Moreover, the report
acknowledges that the incremental IP reforms are unlikely to increase
spending on research and development. It notes:
Most scientific studies “fail to find evidence of a strong positive
response by domestic innovators that could be reasonably ascribed to
the effect of stronger IPR.” To clarify, it is undisputable that
R&D spending is associated with higher GDP growth and, given
current business models, a certain level of IPR protection is essential
for investment in innovation and creativity. Incremental IPR reforms
in OECD countries, however, do not seem to increase domestic spending
in R&D. Some stakeholders interviewed for this study and several
academics consider that excessive IPR could actually harm economic
growth, even in OECD countries, if their holders can block follow‐on
research.
As for the costs of the CETA IP provisions, the report notes that more
dollars will flow to Europe, but Canadian IP holders would not see
increased revenue flow back. In fact, it is Canadian consumers
that
will pay the price with "inflationary pressure" on consumer prices:
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