OTTAWA – Today's ruling from the World Trade Organization (WTO) shows that trade deals to which Canada has signed are preventing governments from taking responsible action to develop a green economy. One of Canada's largest private sector unions, the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP) is calling the decision undemocratic and unacceptable.
The Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP) is one of over 70 European, Canadian and Québecois groups that have signed on to a joint statement strongly opposing the inclusion of an excessive investment protection chapter and investor-state dispute settlement process (ISDS) in the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).
Many critics and most apologists focus on how "free" trade agreements are opening the economy up to the competitive market. Survival of the fittest in the marketplace is what corporations are supposed to desire.
This story is only partly true. Corporations want selective competition - competition for others, but not for themselves.
Say goodbye to Dalton McGuinty's green industry strategy for jobs and manufacturing. The World Trade Organization may have put the boots to it. But the Ontario premier and his government were unwitting accomplices.
The CAW and the CEP are calling on the federal government to appeal a World Trade Organization ruling that finds Ontario's Green Energy Act contrary to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
The WTO found that the act, which favours Ontario-built green energy products built in Ontario through subsidies, was in violation following a complaint by the European Union and Japan.
The feed-in-tariff program requires regional and national electric utilities to purchase electricity from renewable resources like solar, wind and hydroelectric.
TORONTO - The CAW and CEP are voicing their opposition to the WTO ruling siding with the European Union and Japan’s complaint against Ontario’s Green Energy Act and is urging the federal government to appeal the decision.
(Toronto) CAW President Ken Lewenza and CEP President Dave Coles have issued the following joint statement in response to recent reports that the World Trade Organization could deem Ontario's "buy-local" requirements under the Green Energy Act a violation of global trade rules.
