Open letter to Julian Sturdy MP on CETA (Comprehensive Trade and Economic Agreement)

Dear Mr Sturdy,

I’m writing to you as one of your constituents, because I care about the impacts that modern trade deals can have on many areas of life, from food standards to jobs to the environment.

This Monday, 18 June, the Commons will vote on a motion on CETA (Comprehensive Trade and Economic Agreement), the EU-Canada trade deal. I believe this deal poses unacceptable risks and I ask you to vote against it.

Key areas of concern include:

• Job losses and inequality:

The Employment and Social Affairs Committee of the European Parliament said that CETA is likely to lead to job losses, long-term unemployment and increased inequality. (See: https://bit.ly/2JDak0G )

• Undermining standards:

CETA could undermine standards on health, food safety, the environment and other areas, and similar trade deals have been used to bully countries into lowering standards including severely delaying the implementation of plain packaging for cigarettes and safety standards for oil pipelines.

• Public services:

CETA will open up public services to privatisation and make it harder for them to be taken back into public hands in future, and making it impossible to ensure that they are delivered for the benefit of users of the service rather than the profits of corporations.  We have already seen some of this with the health service and education and railways.

• Corporate courts:

CETA includes provision for corporate courts, which allow foreign corporations to sue governments outside of the national legal system. Following public pressure, the provisions in CETA have been marginally improved to make them more transparent (the Investment Court System), but without changing their fundamental basis. They have also been put on hold and face a legal challenge, but would pose a huge risk if implemented. If you believe that one of the reasons that we are leaving the EU is to take back control then you should vote against corporate courts as they are outwith parliamentary control, and will bind future parliaments even more than being a member of the EU and without any democratic oversight.

I believe that trade deals like CETA need to be rethought to support people and planet. I ask you to vote against the motion and work for trade deals that will help to build shared prosperity in the UK and around the world.

Kind regards,

Tom Franklin

4 Frazer Court

York

YO30 5FH