Canada reaches free trade deal with Honduras

[alp227]

Source: CBC News

Canada has struck a free trade deal with Honduras. Prime Minister Stephen Harper made the announcement Friday during a visit to the Central American nation.

But the deal is controversial. Honduras was kicked out of the Organization of American States after a military coup ousted the country's leftist president in 2009. It has since been re-admitted after it held elections and allowed former president Manuel Zelaya to return. Harper is the first foreign leader to visit since the re-admission.

Harper made the announcement with Honduran President Porfirio Lobo Sosa in San Pedro Sula.

Critics say the country's human rights record is still dismal and it has one of the highest crime rates in the world. Canadian mining companies have also been blamed for health problems among indigenous populations in Honduras.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2011/08/12/pol-honduras-free-trade-deal.html

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The article also includes video of a discussion from the CBC program Power & Politics about human rights issues stemming from this deal.

[ananda]

1. Free trade = pure evil.

nt

[DonCoquixote]

2. every time

one of the more self righteous "You yanks suck" Canadians get on here, little gems like this remind me that their halo too is rusty.

[DCKit]

3. I've never heard that, let alone got that vibe from our northern cousins.

And WTF does that have to do with the OP?

[Judi Lynn]

10. Their companies are monstrous in Peru, El Salvador, etc., also. Filthy human rights abuses. n/t

[marasinghe]

11. not to mention the odd stunts their peacekeeping troops pull, in places like Somalia;

under the auspices of the burnished blue helmets of the UN.
http://www.nytimes.com/1994/11/27/world/torture-by-army-peacekeepers-in-somalia-shocks-canada.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somalia_Affair


and i won't even bother to comment on the Canadian contributions to the US professional wrestling paradigm.
;)

[iverglas]

13. a little moderation here, maybe?

Their companies are monstrous ...

They? Those people? Canadians? I'm a Canadian. I don't have any companies doing any of this. Not even a single share.

Mining companies that are owned by some Canadians do genuinely monstrous things. Absolutely no doubt about it. And there are parties in Parliament that have vigorously opposed these free trade deals, the one with Colombia having been especially controversial and the subject of great debate.

For instance:

http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId=3580301&Language=&Mode=1&Parl=39&Ses=2

HUMAN RIGHTS, THE ENVIRONMENT AND FREE TRADE WITH COLOMBIA

Report of the Standing Committee on International Trade
Lee Richardson, M.P.
Chair
JUNE 2008
39th PARLIAMENT, 2nd SESSION

Recommendations (against signing free trade accord) here:
http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId=3580301&Language=&Mode=1&Parl=39&Ses=2&File=9

The bilateral free trade agreements that Canada is busily racking up have one purpose: to open up the other signatories to Canadian investment, in places where their profit-seeking will be virtually unfettered. We have little actual trade with any of these countries. There is no export market for either us or the other countries involved at stake in these deals.

Yes, this is beyond unfortunate. Don't think that Canadians who know about it don't agree.

The really unfortunate thing is that we have an extreme right-wing government at the moment. (Political Compass puts the Conservatives in our recent election farther right and more authoritarian than Mike Huckabee in your last primaries.)

This is because of our voting system -- first past the post determines each seat, and the party (in a multi-party system) with a plurality of seats forms the government. In this case, unlike the last two elections, the Conservatives have achieved an actual majority of seats -- but still with only about 40% of the popular vote. It can happen in a two-party system, but is more likely in a multi-party system.

So the left, and even the centre, has essentially been disenfranchised here at present. We have voice but no vote for the next 4 years -- we cannot bring down a government that fewer than 40% of the approx 61% of voters who actually voted - 25% of the entire electorate -- voted for.

If what this government has done and is going to do bothers you, imagine how it makes us feel.

[roamer65]

4. That's what happens when u give Cons a majority gov't, Canada.

[totodeinhere]

9. The Liberals have also signed off on free trade deals in the past. n/t

[BackToThe60s]

5. "Canadian mining companies"

That's all we need to read, for it Explains All.

[robcon]

6. free trade = best hope for economic growth and peace in the world.

n/t

[alp227]

7. really? tell that to the unemployed workers whose jobs are now overseas nt

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

8. I'm glad to see you favor full mobility for workers.

After all, selling your work force is trade, isn't it?

[Selatius]

12. Not if it's a thinly veiled attempt at labor arbitrage. That helps nobody. nt