Chris Sands of the Washington-based Hudson Institute brings my attention to a recent publication from the Congressional Research Service, the U.S. Congress rough equivalent to Canada’s Library of Parliament, published on May 30 which provides Congress with a comparative trade and economic analysis between the U.S. and those countries in and about to be part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks. Canada announced it would seek to join the TPP talk at the G20 in Mexico a week ago.
Here’s one of the notable paragraphs I took from that study. I have bolded what I thought to be the most interesting line:
Economically, and as North American neighbors, both Canada and Mexico are important to the United States. They are the 1st and 3rd largest U.S. trading partners, respectively. In terms of the magnitude of GDP and population, the TPP agreement would expand considerably were it to include Canada and Mexico. However, given that nearly all of Canada and Mexico’s trade with the United States is already covered through the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the actual economic significance of their entry for the United States would depend on the inclusion of products and practices not covered by NAFTA, such as the remaining restrictions on Canadian imports of U.S. dairy and poultry products, and the extent to which the final TPP agreement addresses such issues as regulatory coherence, state-owned enterprises, and the reduction of other non-tariff barriers to trade. In terms of the overall TPP membership, like Japan, Mexico and Canada could add economic and geopolitical strength to the TPP, and perhaps increase other countries’ interest in joining the TPP negotiations.
I am not pleased by the Harper government’s restructuring of Canada, be it their intent to eliminate agricultural supply management programs or their gutting of the Fisheries act to allow pollution.
At present, the USA allows dairy farmers to use artificial bovine growth hormone to boost milk production. In addition to these hormone residues in the raw milk, there will also be antibiotic residues and pus from the udder infections that are a by-product of the hormone boosting milk production.
I don’t want cheap and dubious American milk flooding the market. As a friend noted, Canada did not approve of this application for the synthetic growth hormone, but any food products you buy that contain various industrial milk products, may be sourced from the USA and contain hormone and antibiotic residues and pus.
When I buy milk, I want milk, not some collection of chemicals and leftover germs that are deemed okay because of various corporate lobbying campaigns.