This Canada-EU trade agreement is going into effect, maybe as soon as April. The ILWU and the SIU have been noisily opposed to it for a long time. I’ve not seen anything else about the projected impact on Canadian mariners. This excerpted from the CBC article:
Not only does it drop and phase out tariffs and grant new market access for a wide range of products including agricultural commodities, but it opens up Canadian government contracts to foreign companies and moves to harmonize certification as well as labour and environmental standards between the two trading partners.
Nearly all the press has been about the European protests against the agreement. I’m left wondering what it means for us.
If our shipyards have to compete with Gdansk for government contracts how can we continue to have a national ship-building industry?
Harmonizing of certifications and standards is all well and good, but what does it mean for our lake’s fleet… which maybe-probably doesn’t meet European environmental standards. That’s big chunk of our sea-farer’s work. Are the unions right, is this the end of Canadian cabotage? Or does it open up more opportunities for Canadian Vessels and maritime workers? Will our crewmen be eligible to work on European flagged vessels?
I just don’t know enough about how the European system works to be able to imagine what harmonization looks like. Any ideas?
And on exactly the same day the Government of Canada settles 55 lawsuits from the SIU related to Canadian cabotage and the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. Tell me its a coincidence.
Does it mean that Canadian cabotage is going to be stronger under CETA? How can that be? I need someone to help me connect the dots, here.
[QUOTE=Emrobu;195264]And on exactly the same day the Government of Canada settles 55 lawsuits from the SIU related to Canadian cabotage and the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. Tell me its a coincidence.
Does it mean that Canadian cabotage is going to be stronger under CETA? How can that be? I need someone to help me connect the dots, here.
cabotage may or may not be stronger, but you need to consider what the agreement actually says to make sense of it.
i recommend you do some simple keyword searches. ‘Maritime’, ‘vessel’ etc… But this is dangerous…since, absent some understanding of how it all hangs together might make you read something very far out of context.
Example-- I used ‘maritime’ and saw comments in section on maritime transport services, which would make you think, non-Canadians can own Canadian ships, feeder (in country transport) services cannot be restricted and must be open to EU parties. oh lord ! Mon dieu (pour les Quebecois)! But, to get context, you need to review the Reservations sections. In some cases, existing national measures are retained by means of reservation (see article 8.15). So, if a reservation is entered specifically by Canada, and agreed to, a status quo may be maintained for certain reasons, as laid out by Canada. Future legislation just can’t be in conflict, (unless you reserve a right to do so there as well). Bottom line is that an agreemeent doesn’t suddenly invalidate laws, nor require it to despite the subject matter and items taken out of context. Canada has (as does EU) extensive section of reservations to cover retaining existing legal requirements.
In the above link, go to pdf page 1209-10 for discussion of Canadian reservations on cabotage. You can likewise find EU cabotage reservations elsewhere. Maybe this will help with the dots.
Very helpful. You’re right, of course. I’ve been trying to stitch together something coherent from from the editorials, but the opinions are contradictory and the opinion-holders have motives. I’ll do as you suggest.
[QUOTE=Jamesbrown;195265]cabotage may or may not be stronger, but you need to consider what the agreement actually says to make sense of it.
[/QUOTE]
I’ve been trying to chew through this document. I’m not a lawyer, but it looks like Canadian cabotage has been protected. This may explain why the unions have had little to say about CETA recently. I’m left wondering about the effects of environmental regulation harmonization, and protection of the Canadian ship-building industry.
Also: I learned that the Americans have some special exceptions to our cabotage rules, which I did not know. For example, they are exempted when they are up north working with the DEW system.
[QUOTE=freighterman;195302]We still have a DEW system?[/QUOTE]
I guess so. Its called out by name in this trade agreement.
Updated - - -
This article from December quotes a lot from Robert Allan. It points out the economic significance to Vancouver and the country of our shipbuilding industry, and also touches on our competitive disadvantages. It seems that two of our yards have already been promised all the work they can handle for the next few decades, but growth might be a tricky thing. It doesn’t project the impact of CETA on this sector.
I thought the DEW Line radar network went out with the early 60’s. The only thing I can imagine is that there is still a lot of environmental clean up work at WWII and Cold War sites in Alaska. Maybe the DOD is also doing some clean up in Canada too.