Archive for the ‘Policy Context’ Category
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With TPP, the devil is in the detail
… the Council [of Canadians] worries that like so many so-called free-trade deals of recent years, the TPP is yet another corporate bill of rights… corporations, their associations and lobbyists have direct influence on the negotiators, while trade unions, NGOs and civil society have virtually none… James Balsillie… has concluded that the deal contains “troubling” rules on intellectual property that threaten to make Canada a “permanent underclass” in the economy of selling ideas.
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, standard of living
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Six actions G20 countries must take to grow the economy inclusively
If we are to grow inclusively, the G20 member countries must: – Combat tax havens; – Enforce the corruption of foreign officials act; – Prevent transfer pricing; – Ensure that royalty payments are transparent; – Require that impact-benefit agreements underpin business licensing; and – Fairly tax corporations in the countries where their activities take place and value is created… governments will lose their legitimacy if they fail to close the loopholes and enact preventative legislation… [But] the funds needed to implement inclusive growth are available.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, globalization, ideology, poverty, standard of living, tax
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TPP is about many things, but free trade? Not so much
Simply put, calling the TPP a free-trade agreement overplays its benefits, plays down its problematic aspects and fundamentally misunderstands what the deal is actually about… The notion that free trade is good is grounded in the theory of comparative advantage… Instead, agreements such as the TPP are about implementing policies that have nothing to do with comparative advantage, policies that are often designed to lead to higher consumer costs and concentrated corporate power.
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, privatization, standard of living
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Canada can’t let labour mobility create an underclass of TFWs
… the TPP is rewriting the rules of business for the 21st century, including those with respect to labour mobility. Half of the 12 negotiating countries have large economies and aging populations, and the other half are populated by younger people with fewer opportunities. Labour mobility is an obvious solution to this apparent labour imbalance in the global market. But it’s crucial that we decide whether this happens through recourse to temporary, precarious work, or through a more just pathway of immigration leading to citizenship.
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, immigration, participation, rights, standard of living
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Modern Treaties Boost First Nations Income, Benefit Resource Companies
… Aboriginal rights over their ancestral land are, in many cases, not well defined… Comprehensive Land Claim Agreements, which began in the 1970s, have sought to clarify who owns the land and its resources.” … by clarifying property rights, treaties reduce the transaction costs for extractive industries such as mining and facilitate their development. Such clarification paves the way for more resource projects that may increase demand for local workers.
Tags: economy, Indigenous, jurisdiction, rights, standard of living
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EU’s tax message to big companies: The game’s over
… the EU fired its first shot at tax-avoiding multinationals: those engaged in a form of fiscal villainy that apparently costs the world between $100-billion (U.S.) and $240-billion in lost tax revenues… known in accounting jargon as transfer pricing… The trick involves shifting taxable profits from one jurisdiction to another, perhaps by charging too much interest for an intercompany loan, or an exorbitant fee for a bit of internal management consultancy, until the profits have been siphoned from an operating subsidiary in a high-tax jurisdiction (where there are assets, jobs and real activity), and arrive in a tax haven, a letter box and an e-mail address in the Caribbean.
Tags: crime prevention, economy, featured, globalization, jurisdiction, tax
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NAFTA is not TPP
… if Canada was outside the TPP, it’s true we would still get WTO-level MFN or non-discriminatory treatment from the 11 remaining TPP members. As well, Canada would still get NAFTA-level preferential treatment from the U.S. and Mexico… But Canada would not be entitled to any of the preferences given by the TPP member countries among themselves, including of course, preferential treatment the U.S. gives to its TPP partners.
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, standard of living
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Ontario’s working poor deserve better
Some 500,000 working Ontarians got a pay hike this week. The minimum wage edged up by a princely 25 cents an hour, to $11.25. That’s an extra $8.75 a week for those lucky enough to hold down a 35-hour job… A minimum-wage worker in Ontario doing 35 hours a week will now earn just over $20,000 before taxes, well under the $23,000-a-year poverty line… In 1997 only one Ontarian in 40 earned the minimum. Today it’s one in eight. More and more are in precarious employment, with unsettled working hours… Social justice is one good reason to legislate a living wage. Common sense is another.
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
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Canada’s international trade
1. The Harper government gave Chinese investors “market access” to Canada — a right to buy what they want in our economy — without getting the same for Canadian investors in China… 2… the terms let China keep all its existing laws, policies, or practices that discriminate against Canadian investors. 3… foreign companies… can seek uncapped amounts of public compensation from governments directly before international tribunals.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, privatization, rights, standard of living
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Tory budget surplus came at cost to public safety ‘
The Harper government has aggressively deregulated, devolving ever-more freedom to companies to make their own judgments of risk versus profits. The new company-led Safety Management System was supposed to complement traditional regulatory oversight, but without adequate regulatory resources, the companies were effectively regulating themselves… Is it worth government compromising its responsibility to protect the public for the sake of a trivial and – most economists agree – meaningless budgetary surplus?
Tags: budget, crime prevention, economy, ideology, privatization, standard of living, tax
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