Corporate EU Trade Deal Will Cost 150,000 Jobs

The Canada-EU free trade deal that the Harper government is negotiating on behalf of the corporate sector, will be devastating for Canadians.

A study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives reveals:

The study, by economist and CCPA Research Associate Jim Stanford, models three scenarios to provide a range of estimates regarding the likely impacts of EU-Canada free trade. In every case, Canada’s bilateral trade balance worsens significantly. The simulations suggest an incremental loss of between 28,000 and 150,000 Canadian jobs.

Canada already has a large bilateral trade deficit with the EU—$15 billion in goods and close to $4 billion in services, and loses some 70,000 jobs as a result. A free trade agreement would make that imbalance worse, Stanford argues, for three key reasons: Canadian imports from the EU start out much larger than our exports there; Canadian tariffs are substantially higher than EU tariffs (and hence have farther to fall); and the Canadian dollar has recently risen substantially against the euro, making Canadian-made products much less competitive and overwhelming the benefits of tariff reduction on our exports.

I wish just once Harper would put the Canadian people above his wealthy buddies. They have enough money, already.