USW Canada: Canada needs FAIR trade and we need it now!

The Myth of Unprotected Free Trade…
We keep hearing about the new global market and how Canadians need to be more flexible, innovative and efficient in order to compete. The proponents of this unregulated market are quick to point to the Canadian worker and to the unions that

Make no mistake about it. Trade rules are changing and will continue to change. We can not stop this happening but what we can and must do is have a Canadian voice in what that change will be. We need a strong Canadian plan on how we fit into the new global trading regime. We need your voice. We need your help. Join with District 6 as we fight to save and protect our jobs and our communities. I commit not only to continue to work within our District to fight for every Steelworker workplace no matter what sector or industry, but I will also continue to be a voice for a Canadian solution. Because without a Canadian solution we will continue to see jobs lost, communities destroyed and Steelworker families torn apart.

represent them as being the barrier to Canada’s ability to compete in this market. They want the average Canadian to believe their rhetoric that the problem today is that we can’t compete in a Free Trade global market because Canadians make too much money, have too many social benefits, are lazy and generally unwilling to make adjustments necessary to maintain our global market share. But nothing could be farther from the truth. What they forget to tell the Canadian public is that free unhampered trade is a global myth; that countries and regions have always had trade laws and regulations to enhance and/or protect one trading entity over another. That reality existed long before the current economic crisis.

Today we continue to have many countries where foreign ownership is either not allowed or limited to less than a 50% share of the company. So was I surprised in recent months when the Chinese government blocked the sale of their largest fruit juice producer to Coca Cola or when the Australian government blocked the sale of Rio Tinto to a Chinese mining company, both on the basis of “national security”? How could I claim surprise at a practice that has gone on for years. What surprises and terrifies me is that here at home our Canadian government refuses to step in and protect Canadian interests and has allowed vital industries like our mining and basic steel sectors to become completely owned by foreign interests.

And when it comes to our natural resources, where was our government when our precious forestry sector was getting systematically destroyed and our northern communities being strangled out of existence? You need only look across the border to Washington State which for years has protected their industry by requiring all logs that are cut down on their crown land to be fully manufactured in Washington State.

And what about the Euro….you know that new currency that wascreated for the new European trading market? Funny how in the 1990s the world touted the creation of this new trading regime where similar countries with similar standards of living joined together to give each other a preferred trading status with a new joint currency.

There are so many examples of what other countries and regions are doing to protect their share of the global market with procurement or tariff like protections. That means our government doesn’t even have to be innovative or creative in its thinking. They just have to get us into the game.