UOttawa Law Prof Geist Hits Canadian Government's TPP Secrecy

By Keith Edmund White, Editor-in-Chief

Dr. Michael Geist, a leading voice on copyright and UOttawa professor with a syndicated column on technology law to boot, last Sunday hit the Harper government for its lack of transparency over Canada's participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

The column's main value added for other similar articles: its focus on the content of Canadian public commentary on the TPP and the TPP split in the Canadian business community. From Geist's column:

In addition to tens of thousands of form letters and emails criticizing the TPP, the government received hundreds of individual handcrafted responses that unanimously criticized the proposed agreement.

A review of more than 400 individual submissions did not identify a single instance of support for the agreement. Rather, these submissions typically expressed concern with the prospect of extending the term of copyright or adopting restrictive digital lock rules.

The documents also revealed that the Canadian business community was split on the agreement, with numerous companies and associations identifying concerns about the potential direction of the TPP.

Leading telecommunications companies, including Bell, Rogers, Shaw and Telus, cautioned against changes to Internet provider liability rules; groups representing the blind warned against new restrictions to accessing digital materials; Oxfam Canada worried about the TPP’s impact on pharmaceutical pricing; and the Canadian Library Association expressed fears about a reversal of recent changes to copyright damages rules.

Main lesson:  trade policy always picks winners and losers--the fight is over who they should be.  

Now there is a fair rejoinder to Geist's thesis:  If trade deal talks are ever fully transparent they'll never be concluded, since free trade pits the generalizable benefits of liberalized trade against the deep and particularized interests of a few key economic actors, and Mancur Olson collective action tragedy always wins.   Now was that last statement wildly shallow and profoundly undemocratic?  Yes.

For the sake of balance, I'll highlight (again) Beyond the Border, 2013: Inching Toward a Deal by Colin Robertson in Wednesday's iPolitics.