ANOTHER SECRET TREATY

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: february 2015 :: RMTnews 20 Opposition to the corporate- backed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) – a secret free trade deal being negotiated between the EU and the US – has shone a light on another murky deal between Canada and the EU, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). TTIP and CETA both threaten to fatally undermine democracy and unleash an orgy of job cutting and privatisation particularly in the transport sector. The Seafarers' International Union of Canada (SIU) president James Given is calling on the Canadian government to hold an open and public debate of the contents for Canadians if CETA becomes a reality. "We can guarantee one thing for sure, if CETA is signed and adopted, Canadian maritime jobs will be lost and it will not take long before the rest of the Canadian transportation sectors are affected, including, air, road and rail," he said. He warned that there were over 1.4 million seafarers in the world and most seafarers gained employment through third party manning agents. "If the Canadian government can say with 100 per cent certainty that they know who is on a vessel which is registered in Cyprus, owned in Greece, operated from Thailand, Classified in Japan, insured in the UK and crewed by Indonesian and Syrian seafarers hired through third party manning agents, then they are living in a world that I did not know existed," he said. European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) has also expressed concern over CETA negotiations which it believes jeopardise jobs and regulations on both sides of the Atlantic. In addition to opposing the creation of Investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) courts which will allow corporations to sue states that get in the way of making profits, the ETF rejects the inclusion of a specific chapter on International Maritime Transport Services. “In our view, the present proposals are a charter for seafarer exploitation and the undermining of collective bargaining in the maritime industry, as they permit free movement of EU registered vessels or EU flag of convenience vessels between Canadian ports without any restrictions on nationality of the crew or basic protections from exploitative pay rates or working conditions,” it warned. The ETF has also made clear its opposition to TTIP and CETA which would include the opening up of domestic cabotage arrangements in North America and effectively end the Jones Act in the US or the Canadian equivalent which protects domestic jobs. “It is difficult to comprehend how the domestic shipping industry can survive if the measures currently being proposed are implemented,” the ANOTHER SECRET TREATY Secret negotiations for a Canada EU Trade Agreement (CETA) will create another treaty for enshrining massive powers for global corporations and threaten transport jobs