Why there must be a Commons debate on CETA

The dangerous CETA (Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement) between the European Union and Canada will be voted on by the European Parliament next week, and given the current make-up and the positions of the largest political groups, it is likely to be approved. Currently, many EU member states are in favour of this deal, which like the aborted TTIP/TPP deals, will give unprecedented and dangerous power to multinational corporations, and will benefit Canada far more than it will benefit Europe in any case.

The Conservative government is attempting to push this through without any parliamentary debate, even though it granted one (reluctantly) for the Article 50 trigger; both have serious consequences for the people of Britain. If it passes, increasing privatisation of our NHS will be effectively irreversible (as will a number of other things) due to the fact that CETA has the dangerous Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism in the same way that TTIP and TPP did before they foundered. Also, if CETA passes, many critical protections will be weakened or will effectively disappear due to greater entrenchment of corporate power. CETA is as equally bad as those two deals and it needs to be prevented from ever being implemented.

I call on those of you reading my blog to as much as you can make sure that this deal is debated in Parliament-and then defeated both in Westminster and in the European Parliament.

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