Living Policy: International Trade

There is no doubt about the economic benefits increased international trade has brought to Canada. But free trade agreements like NAFTA are impacting our sovereignty, democracy, human rights, especially civil rights, our legislation around social services, regulations pertaining to the environment, food and health and our energy, water and security . International financial organizations that have been entrusted with managing the global economy reflect mainly the interests of large corporations who account for 70 percent of international trade. Democratizing these institutions would lead to fairer trade, broader access to knowledge, more relevant forms of foreign aid, debt forgiveness, more equity and as a result less conflict and more security. Opening up these institutions would also reduce environmental degradation due to fairer prices being paid for resource extraction in developing countries, the ability to compensate developing countries for environmental services, trade sanctions on developed countries that refuse to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, etc. The Green Party of Canada will take measures to: • Renegotiate our multilateral trade agreements, such as NAFTA and the upcoming FTAA, to include fair trade tariffs that work to protect human rights and our ecosystems, as well as terminate investor-state dispute mechanisms that erode Canada's sovereignty and environmental laws. • Propose a reform of the WTO, the IMF and the World Bank, placing these institutions under the authority of the UN general assembly, and shift the direction of international trade away from "free trade" to "fair trade" focusing on the global protection of human rights, labour standards, cultural diversity, and ecosystems.