John Kennair's special to the Gazette contributed to the debate over the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). To his broad perspective I wish to add some detail.
As a retired dairy farmer I see the TPP as a threat. Right now milk prices are depressed. With the exception of in Canada, dairy farmers are compiling record debt. Just last week I read that Vietnamese dairies are bracing for stiffer competition from big investors entering the market. In New Zealand, the biggest dairy exporter and the country with the lowest cost of production, dairy farmers are paid less than the cost of production. In every country where the market for milk has been deregulated the results range from quitting to suicide.
Ottawa's assumption that TPP will be limited to a 3.25 per cent loss in market share is rather naive.
Prior to the global glut of milk, New Zealanders were paying as much for dairy produce as Canadians – thanks to middlemen. In the U.S., taxpayers pay to subsidize dairy farmers.
Dairy and poultry are not the only potential victims of TPP. Protecting the profits of pharmaceutical companies will make our medicines more expensive.
TPP will erode Canada's sovereignty, allowing foreign corporations to sue for damages if our laws get in the way of their profits.
Others have deplored the secrecy of the negotiations. Buying a pig in a poke may fit.
TPP is a trade agreement that will entrench the market power of investors, exporters and patent and copyright holders. Climate change is not mentioned in its 6,000-plus pages. Environmental and labour chapters will be almost impossible to enforce.
Bill Bocock, Sturgeon County, AB.
