OP-ED PIECE: WTO and Employment Insurance

There is a rumor being spread among the fishing community that talks at the World Trade Organization (WTO) are threatening Canada’s Employment Insurance (EI) program. This is completely untrue.

I can assure you that myself, as Member of Parliament for South Shore - St. Margaret’s and as past Chair of Fisheries and Oceans Committee, along with Loyola Hearn, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, have great concerns with the draft fisheries subsidies text which contains controversial and unacceptable provisions for Canada. Our government is reviewing the text in great detail and this involves several Ministers, including Ministers from the departments of Agriculture, Trade and Finance.

It is also rumored that this could come into effect as early as April 1, 2008 - again, this is not true. I personally give my word that April 1, 2008 will come and go and EI will still be in existence. For anyone to say differently is irresponsible and not based on fact.

Since 2001, when the Liberals were in power, after a meeting in Doha, Qatar, there have been ongoing negotiations by WTO members in what has been called “Doha Development Agenda,” focusing on a number of areas. While agriculture and non-agricultural market access are the key issues, recent opposition attention has focused on WTO rules concerning subsidies in support of the fishing industry, specifically EI.

The draft text, which the official opposition is referring to in their news articles, is the first draft in this aspect of negotiations, and contains provisions, such as employment insurance, that the former Liberal government allowed to be open for discussion. You might want to ask yourself, why, seven years after these same Liberals put EI on the table, they only started talking about this on the eve of a possible election?

Again, I would like to remind everyone that this is a first draft text and we (Canada) have indicated our concerns with the proposed prohibition on income support and are working with like-minded members - including the United States, European Union, Iceland and Norway - to ensure that the text is amended as the negotiations evolve. Our government is working with a wide range of stakeholders…to get the best possible outcome for Canadians.

The big difference between EI in Canada versus some of the developing nations is that our program is a national program; it is not a program strictly dedicated to the fishery and in Canada’s case does not threaten the sustainability of the fishery resource.

It is absolute fear-mongering on behalf of the NDP and the Liberals to suggest that this process will be over by April 1, 2008. No ministerial meeting has, of yet, been scheduled for the spring. Even if such a meeting is held, all of the ministers from all of the counties have to unanimously agree to the finished text and this agreement is reached by consensus. This is unlikely to happen anytime soon. Remember, these negotiations have been ongoing since 2001 and the WTO is still working on the first draft.

Our government is standing up for our fishers and will make sure that EI remains an important part of the Canadian government’s economic strategy.

MP Gerald Keddy,

South Shore – St. Margaret’s