Canada and the European Union moving closer to free-trade agreement
Montreal Gazette, Canada
Canada and the European Union moving closer to free-trade agreement
By Jeff Heinrich, The Gazette
5 October 2012
MONTREAL - Are you fed up with the sorry state of Quebec’s taxpayer-funded roads and highways ? Disgusted by widespread allegations of corruption and collusion in the province’s construction industry ? Shocked at the kickbacks that organized crime is said to demand to get things built in this province ?
Have no fear, all you avid watchers of the Charbonneau Commission. There’s hope on the horizon : It’s a free-trade agreement between Canada and the European Union — to be signed by as early as Christmas — which, among many other things, would open public contracts here up to European bidders.
That cheery prospect was raised Friday at an invitation-only information meeting at the Palais des congrès organized by Quebec’s new Parti Québécois minority government and attended by 100 politicians, business and union leaders, civil-society groups and business reporters.
Updating the participants on negotiations between Canada and Europe that began in 2009, have gone nine rounds and are now in the final stretch, Quebec chief negotiator Pierre-Marc Johnson said the deal would improve access to Europe’s 500 million consumers, “the richest market in the world.”
While key areas of Quebec’s own markets — in public education and health-care, agriculture and water, the arts and other subsidized culture — would be protected or exempt under the trade deal, “$11 billion in public tenders in Quebec would be open to competition,” the former PQ premier said.
“It’s not a bad idea, competition — it prevents collusion. The more competition, the better the price.”
The president of Quebec’s largest trade-union federation, the FTQ — which is heavily involved in the construction industry now being probed by the Charbonneau Commission — agreed.
“If there’s an enormous amount of competition, then of course collusion can be avoided,” said Michel Arsenault, who has been closely linked with disgraced construction magnate Tony Accurso.
“If there are only one or two (companies) bidding for a contract, that can lead, indeed, to collusion,” Arsenault told reporters outside the meeting room.
Getting European expertise and capital would be a plus for Quebec, he added. But he drew the line at importing European labour to get the job done.
“Quebec’s construction industry is wall-to-wall unionized,” and labour laws that protect jobs here should trump any accord that opens up markets, he said.
Jean-François Lisée, Quebec’s new international trade minister, expressed a similar opinion.
Corruption and collusion in bidding for public construction contracts has cost the government dearly over the last few years, Lisée said — as much as 15 to 30 per cent of an annual $5 billion.
“Of course, more competition and more players in a small market can only help in giving us more bang for our buck,” he told reporters after the meeting.
Asked if Quebec could someday have European firms come and build better roads here, Lisée responded : “Well, why not ?” But, he added, “who will they hire ?
“They will hire Quebec engineers. They will hire Quebec workers and Quebec firms. They will not get their gear out of Poland to come and build roads in Brossard.
“That’s not a huge concern. The huge concern is, if you want to extract the cancer that is collusion and corruption, is more light and more competition part of the answer ?
“You bet it is.”
From an export point of view, a deal with Europe would be welcome now because Quebec’s exports to its principal foreign trading partner, the U.S., have been falling steadily, said Quebec finance minister Nicolas Marceau. Ten years ago, Quebec used to export 50 per cent of its GDP abroad. Now that has slipped to 45 per cent, he said — as low as it was in the 1980s before free trade with the U.S. and later Mexico.
The NAFTA treaty of 1994 has been “blowing itself out,” Marceau said, but other factors also hurt, such as the competitive clout of emerging foreign producers and the high Canadian dollar.
“It’s vital now to open ourselves up to the rest of the world, in a context where we can’t count as much as we have in the past on the U.S.,” Marceau said.
“The alternative (to the U.S.) is to open a new work site, and that’s what’s happening with the accord we envisage with Europe — the most important Canada has had since the FTA in 1989.”
But Québec solidaire MP Amir Khadir said the Europeans have no lessons to give Quebec on preventing corruption.
“Corruption is a political culture that’s gangrening all the Western democracies today — in France, in Italy, in Britain,” said Khadir, who is a medical doctor. Just because a corporation is based in Europe and has multinational reach doesn’t mean it’s “cleaner” than smaller ones here now caught up in corruption scandals, he said.
“It’s wrong to think that this accord is a tool to fight against corruption,” Khadir said. “What is a tool is the ethical rules we come up with, the rules to prevent conflicts of interest, rules to ensure that the people making decisions on behalf of the public have no other interest in the matter and aren’t under the influence of other interests.” To that end, he proposed a preamble to the accord that prioritizes the “public good.”
One more road to pave with good intentions.
