FAIT Committee Report

Supplementary Opinion
Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade
Report on Candadian Priorities for the 2002 G8 Summit

Svend J. Robinson, MP

I acknowledge and value the dedication and hard work of my Committee colleagues in holding extensive hearings and travelling across Canada to hear the views of a wide variety of concerned Canadians during the course of this important study. My New Democrat colleagues and I are largely in agreement with the recommendations of the Committee, however, in a number of important respects we believe that the final Report of the Committee must be strengthened. Like my colleagues, I want to thank all of the witnesses who appeared before us, both in Ottawa and across Canada.

The most important conclusion drawn by all members of the Committee is that Canada must take the lead in urging all G8 members to undertake coherent, broadly-based multilateral approaches to global reforms, including reforming G8 processes to make them more results-oriented and democratically accountable. Increasing the inclusion and participation of NGOs, labour groups, academics, and other concerned citizens in the decision-making processes of the G8 is urgently required. My New Democrat colleagues and I hope that the public hearings held in preparation for the Committee’s Report will be only the beginning of this trend.

The following are the key areas in which we believe that the majority Report must be changed or strengthened:

• The Report urges Canada to encourage the negotiation of reformed international trade rules and practices to increase the benefits of trade for the poorest people and regions in the world, with particular attention to Africa. The NDP supports this recommendation, but notes that it stops short of calling for a reformation of international trade regimes to allow for the democratic participation of parliamentarians, non-state actors, and citizens, which would significantly increase the transparency and accountability of such international bodies. It must strongly condemn the current structural adjustment policies which have been so destructive, and increased the gap between rich and poor, and call for fundamental changes to the IFI’s such as the World Bank and the IMF, and the WTO. They must be democratized to strengthen third world meaningful participation.

• The Report recommends that the Committee urge Canada and its G8 partners to provide increased funding for international development, and to create a working group to improve the effectiveness of members’ foreign aid policies, yet it remains silent on the issue of "tied" aid. We believe the Report should recommend that Canada lead by example in declaring all of its development assistance funding be provided with no provisions that Canadian technology or expertise be used exclusively in the implementation of development projects. In order to ensure that the full benefit of our ODA accrues to the recipient countries, we must abandon the notion that the majority of our ODA return to Canada as contracts for Canadian businesses. As well, the report should support the CCIC target of 0.35% of GDP towards ODA within 5 years, and from there moving rapidly to meet the UN target of 0.7%.

• The Report should recommend that Canada and the G8 nations abide by their commitments to the UN Millennium Development Goals, including halving extreme poverty and hunger, ensuring universal primary education, and halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and other major diseases, by the year 2015.

• The Report recommends that Canada should promote substantial additional debt relief for the poorest countries, but only as a "reward" for the fulfilment of certain conditions. We believe that the Report should go much further, to advocate that Canada and its G8 partners immediately and unconditionally cancel the debt owed by the highly-indebted poor countries. Debt burdens are a very real killer in the developing world, which consign millions to premature deaths. Any delay in implementing complete debt relief only serves to increase the death toll.

• Most Africans do not know anything about the contents of the NEPAD, as was confirmed at the recent CIDA supported conference in Montreal. We therefore believe that the plan must be sent back for full consultation and feedback to African NGOs and civil society, with real citizen involvement. Furthermore, we disagree with the fundamental premise of NEPAD, that increased trade and foreign investment are the key to reducing poverty in Africa. That has not been the experience in Latin America

• Rather than recommending that Canada press for a G8 Action Plan which would impose stricter multilateral controls on illicit arms transfers to Africa, we believe the Report should go a step further, and seek increased controls on the export of arms from G8 nations to African nations, especially those in which conflicts are raging.

• The Report recommends a strengthened process around conflict diamonds, but ignores the urgent need for controls to deal with conflict oil in Africa. We believe that if Canada is serious about its concern for Africa, it must immediately acknowledge the role of oil development in the tragic civil war in Sudan, and then take action domestically and multilaterally through the G8 to establish enforceable codes of commercial conduct throughout Africa, but particularly in zones of conflict. Canada is complicit in the perpetuation of violence in Sudan, as it has taken no steps to prevent Talisman Energy Inc. of Calgary, Alberta from continuing its oilfield development operations in Sudan, which have been conclusively shown to provide a lucrative source of income to Sudan’s genocidal government. We must also strengthen the Special Economic Measures Act to enable the government to take action on corporate misconduct where necessary.

• The Report recommends that the G8 Action Plan for Africa address the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa on a number of levels, but we believe that the pandemic is so devastating to that continent that the G8 must immediately establish a working group devoted to the issue, which would seek broad input from state and non-state actors in drafting recommendations for action to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goal of halting and reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015. There must be far more resources marshalled for the fight against HIV/AIDS, in both prevention and treatment, as well as tuberculosis and malaria. We strongly support the recommendations of UN Special Envoy Stephen Lewis on this subject.

• The Report should unequivocally call on Canada to promote modification of the compulsory licensing agreement under TRIPS to allow developing countries without access to appropriate manufacturing capacity to freely import generic medications. It is unacceptable that lives should ever be put at risk in order to protect the profits of multinational pharmaceutical corporations.

• The Report should recommend that Canada lead by example in quickly removing barriers to trade which prevent developing nations from benefitting from their exports, particularly in the textile and agricultural industries.

• While the Report recommends that Canada and the G8 consider implementation of enforceable international business standards with credible monitoring and reporting mechanisms in Africa, it is silent with regard to international human rights standards, and the importance of labour standards. G8 nations must enforce acceptable standards of conduct for their businesses which invest in Africa or other developing regions, and ensure that they respect and support human rights, including labour rights, in those countries in which they invest and operate.

• The Report recommends that Canada and the G8 ensure that NEPAD promotes good governance and democratic development in Africa, yet it does not mention the primacy of international human rights law in this regard. We support a rights-based approach to meeting African development needs, but NEPAD largely ignores this. We believe that good governance does not exist where people live in fear and insecurity due to the lack or denial of effective systems to ensure the maintenance and functioning of international standards of human rights.

• The Report recommends that the Africa Action Plan include environmental sustainability as an essential component of economic recovery and development. We believe this is critically important, but would note that African nations are not alone in shouldering this responsibility. Canada and its G8 partners must take immediate steps to ensure that private business investments as well as publicly-funded development projects are carried out in Africa with the highest possible standards of environmental sustainability, and made subject to public scrutiny both in Canada and in the target country.

These are the key areas in which my New Democrat colleagues and I believe the Report should be strengthened.