{"id":10459,"date":"2015-07-28T06:59:12","date_gmt":"2015-07-28T11:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=10459"},"modified":"2015-07-28T06:59:12","modified_gmt":"2015-07-28T11:59:12","slug":"trans-pacific-partnership-trade-talks-peak-as-canada-eyes-election-timing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=10459","title":{"rendered":"Trans-Pacific Partnership trade talks peak as Canada eyes election timing"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"story-headline\">\n<h3 class=\"story-title\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/politics\/trans-pacific-partnership-trade-talks-peak-as-canada-eyes-election-timing-1.3168092\" target=\"_blank\">Trans-Pacific Partnership trade talks peak as Canada eyes election timing<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"story-deck\"><strong>&#8216;It&#8217;s hard to put out a press release during an election, let alone a 21st century trade agreement&#8217;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Pity Ed Fast&#8217;s campaign manager in Abbotsford, B.C.<\/p>\n<p>While most MPs running for re-election are focused on campaigning, Stephen Harper&#8217;s trade minister is in Maui, Hawaii, this week to see if there&#8217;s a Trans-Pacific Partnership deal Canada can sign on to.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s an agreement, the prime minister\u00a0said in June, that&#8217;s\u00a0&#8220;essential&#8221; for Canada, establishing a basis for trade among not only the 12 Pacific Rim countries at the table, but others who could join later \u2014 like\u00a0China, India or the Philippines.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a title=\"Jul 26 \u2014 Foreign trade partners trash it. The domestic food industry wants it reformed. But Canada's supply management system for dairy, poultry and eggs isn't going anywhere so long as politicians are nearly unanimous about protecting marketing boards. Why?\" href=\"http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/politics\/supply-management-in-canada-why-politicians-defend-farm-marketing-boards-1.3166329\">Supply management in Canada: Why politicians defend farm marketing boards<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Analysis:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/politics\/shrewd-canada-playing-long-game-as-tpp-trade-talks-begin-in-maui-1.3164916\">&#8216;Shrewd&#8217; Canada playing long game as TPP talks begin in Maui<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A bad deal for Canada\u00a0\u2014 or a deal so bad Canada has to walk away\u00a0\u2014 would be\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/politics\/recession-talk-looms-over-federal-election-campaign-plans-1.3161691\">another blow to the Conservatives&#8217;\u00a0election\u00a0narrative<\/a>\u00a0of sound economic management.<\/p>\n<div class=\"figure col4width floatright\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i.cbc.ca\/1.3166006.1437723197!\/fileImage\/httpImage\/image.jpg_gen\/derivatives\/original_300\/trade-minister-ed-fast.jpg\" alt=\"Trade Minister Ed Fast\" width=\"100%\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"figure-caption\">Trade Minister Ed Fast joins the talks Tuesday &#8211; and might have to interrupt his election campaigning in September if talks drag on. (Daniel Munoz\/Reuters)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Fast\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/player\/News\/Politics\/ID\/2672233856\/\">appeared cool\u00a0last week<\/a>, not rising\u00a0to the bait of Americans launching their position\u00a0\u2014 a dismantling of<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/politics\/supply-management-in-canada-why-politicians-defend-farm-marketing-boards-1.3166329\">Canada&#8217;s marketing board regime<\/a>\u00a0for dairy, poultry and eggs\u00a0\u2014 loud and clear in the media.<\/p>\n<p>But as ministerial talks begin Tuesday,\u00a0Fast faces awkward\u00a0timing.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/business\/congress-clears-way-for-tpp-trade-deal-in-u-s-1.3126375\">Newly\u00a0enabled by\u00a0fast-track authority from the U.S. Congress<\/a>, the Americans\u00a0and Japanese speak of concluding\u00a0a deal now, and finalizing\u00a0by the end of\u00a0the year, before 2016 elections.<\/p>\n<p>The Harper government might want\u00a0to stretch\u00a0final bargaining until its own vote is over\u00a0\u2014 to strengthen its\u00a0mandate\u00a0and minimize electoral risks\u00a0from what\u00a0unfolds.<\/p>\n<div>\n<h2>Timing not up to Canada<\/h2>\n<p>One of the trade minister&#8217;s former staff said\u00a0it would be &#8220;next to impossible&#8221; for Canada to negotiate during the writ period.<\/p>\n<div class=\"figure col4width floatright\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i.cbc.ca\/1.3165892.1437699743!\/cpImage\/httpImage\/image.jpg_gen\/derivatives\/original_300\/clinton-california.jpg\" alt=\"Clinton-California\" width=\"100%\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"figure-caption\">Public opinion in the U.S. is divided over the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal &#8211; but U.S. President Barack Obama has fast-track authority to get a deal done sooner rather than later. (Damian Dovarganes\/Associated Press)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s hard for a minister to put out a press release during an election campaign, let alone a 21st century trade agreement with 40 per cent of the world&#8217;s GDP,&#8221; said Adam Taylor, now with Ensight Canada&#8217;s international trade practice.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think people would never expect a democratic country in the middle of an election to come to the table to negotiate in a meaningful way.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trans-Pacific Partnership trade talks peak as Canada eyes election timing &#8216;It&#8217;s hard to put out a press release during an election, let alone a 21st century trade agreement&#8217; Pity Ed Fast&#8217;s campaign manager in Abbotsford, B.C. While most MPs running for re-election are focused on campaigning, Stephen Harper&#8217;s trade minister is in Maui, Hawaii, this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[103,7535,3544,3000,7466,749,804,805,808],"class_list":["post-10459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-geopolitics","tag-canada","tag-canadian-election","tag-cbc","tag-cbc-news","tag-ed-fast","tag-stephen-harper","tag-tpp","tag-trade","tag-trans-pacific-partnership"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10459"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10460,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10459\/revisions\/10460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}