New trade treaties jeopardize fisheries regulation

 

 

The proposed Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and other trade and investment treaties threaten the sustainability of fisheries and fishing communities, says a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).

 

"Globalization, Trade Treaties and the Future of the Atlantic Canadian Fisheries" states that new treaties could undermine public policies that curb domination of the fisheries by large corporations and help spread the benefits of the fishery more widely among independent fishers and coastal communities.

 

When properly regulated within sustainable ecological limits, international trade is vital to the economic well-being of the Atlantic Canadian fisheries. But the trade and investment treaties now under negotiation go far beyond eliminating tariffs, states the report.

 

"Just as the freezer trawlers that ply the world's oceans today are far more extractive and destructive than earlier fishing vessels, so the latest trade and investment treaties are more instrusive than previous ones," says the report's author, CCPA senior researcher Scott Sinclair.

 

Leaked documents reveal that the European Union is pressuring Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec to abolish minimum processing requirements for fish. Mimimum processing requirements provide provincial governments with critical leverage to maximize local benefits. Sinclair notes that "without such regulation, these decisions would be left to large fish processing companies to make with no consideration for any other factors than how it affects their corporate bottom line."

 

According to the report, while CETA exemptions protecting federal regulatory authority over fisheries are fairly strong, there are serious shortcomings to the proposed reservations for provincial measures If provincial governments don't insist on stronger protection, states the report, "they will be surrendering their future legislative and constitutional power through which the wealth generated by fish and other natural resources could contribute to the sustainable development of their province."