Ottawa resists pressure from Europe over financial services soc.li/6rNhjxY – Ottawa should resist US FATCA pressure too!
— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) February 28, 2013
Financial services has become the latest stumbling block as Canada and Europe try to put the finishing touches on a sweeping free-trade agreement.
Canada is resisting pressure from Europe to allow its financial institutions and investors to directly sue Ottawa for measures it might take to protect the stability of the financial system or market players, according to a leaked draft of the services and investment chapter of the deal obtained by the Council of Canadians.
Read the complete article here which was written by Barrie McKenna. Fascinating that he doesn’t see certain aspects of this (although it is not a direct anology) to be the same as the issues resulting from a possible FATCA IGA. The other thing that occurs to me is that one must rethink the argument that FATCA may be a violation of NAFTA. (The NAFTA argument is one that has been suggested/developed by certain legal academics.)
Finally, the above quote implies the concern of the Council of Canadians over Canada’s international agreements. This group, that claims to be the guardian of Canadian sovereignty, appears to be silent on FATCA while complaining about the Harper Canada/China deals. Somebody should pick up the phone and get Maude Barlow’s take on FATCA.
Explain it to her like this:
Once the US gets control of the banks, they will get control of the economy, which means they will get control Canada, which means (to address her concern): the U.S. will get control of Canada’s water. Maybe this would get her attention.
My take on McKenna’s article was that in his mind Canada would eventually and should cave to the Europeans. McKenna does very much have a bias towards caving on all matters of policy. For example he implies that an agreement with Europe nonetheless will be signed shortly. Well several other people such as Paul Wells of Macleans Magazine and Michael Geist have said the whole agreement could very well fall apart completely. Where I think McKenna’s is biased is that if the agreement were to fall apart completely he personally would view it as a horrible tragedy.
In August 2012, the head of the Mexican public accountant’s association was arguing that FATCA violated Article 1202 of the North American Free Trade agreement by violating provisions guaranteeing most favoured nation treatment for all members and by violating provisions against discrimination in favour of local firms. His name is Jose Luis Fernandez, Comision Fiscal Internacional del Instituto Mexicano de Contadores Publicos (IMCP).