[psema4]

I've been thinking about this for several months and am wondering if there's enough interest to warrant moving for the creation of an International Trade Committee.

First off, and if I read Mikkel right, I'm wholly in agreement with him about having too many committees and a lack of manpower to properly utilize them.

Unfortunately I see International Trade as the largest threat to Canadian sovereignty in recent years and quite frankly bi- and multilateral agreements like ACTA and CETA scare the crap out of me.  From my perspective these agreements are designed to undermine our legislative frameworks to favor industry from outside (current) Canadian jurisdiction.

Since I began watching trade agreements I've yet to see compelling evidence that we should be trading our legislation, infrastructure and other fundamentals of Canadian society for little more than "the right" to operate (or expand) Canadian business interests in others' markets.

I'm extremely curious what other members think about this matter; if there's support I'll move for the creation of a committee at the January General Meeting.

Edit: To reiterate from prior postings: I don't disbelieve in capitalism or international trade.  I do however dare to believe in balance and to not believe in the ability of either the Conservatives and Liberals to do what's in the best interest of Canadians in this regard.

[Sean Hunt]

I don't think this would be a good idea for three reasons.

First, as has been mentioned, we do not need more committees. All this organizational structure is good, but without people to help out, nothing will happen.

Second, this is really already in the domain of the Platform Information committee, or of the Federal Council which is late on delivering the platform.

Third, international trade is not really a core issue, nor do I believe it should become one. There's far more to international trade than just selling our souls, and while we don't like that bit, we can speak out perfectly fine against it without focusing on the rest of trade.

[Nuitari]

International trade is good for canada because we are mainly a resource producing country.

The problem with CETA and ACTA is that they aren't really free trade treaties but ways to hammer in IP law changes for few benefits.