Letter to Stockwell Day, Minister of International Trade, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade - Re: Canada/European Union (EU) Economic Agreement |
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March 25, 2009 - 14:00 Free Trade / Letter Stockwell Day
Dear Mr. Day: I am writing to express concerns about the issue of postal services in the upcoming negotiations towards a comprehensive economic agreement between Canada and the European Union (EU). The EU has an aggressive agenda for deregulating postal and courier services, as demonstrated by its plurilateral request during the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) negotiations at the World Trade Organization and its plans for post offices within Europe. The EU has issued a directive requiring all countries to fully deregulate their post offices as of 2011, with the exception of 11 member states which will be given until the end of 2012. The CUPW strongly urges you to resist making any commitments that would liberalize Canada Post’s postal and courier services. We would like your assurances that Canada intends to protect these services with fully effective reservations. We also urge you to continue to oppose any efforts to change the classification of postal and courier services, especially along the lines of the modifications that have been advanced by the EU in the GATS negotiations. Such changes, by narrowing the scope of the current protection for postal services, would almost certainly undermine our public postal system. Finally, the union requests that you reject any new disciplines for designated monopolies and state/public enterprises and any proposals which would put new restrictions on the regulation of postal services, including the addition of a "reference paper" or new obligations imposing so-called pro-competitive regulation on the postal sector. It is our view that there is currently no pressing need to make changes to postal and courier services and no consensus within the country that measures promoting postal liberalization, privatization and deregulation are necessary or desirable. We would appreciate a letter outlining your views.
Yours truly, Denis Lemelin
c.c. National Executive Committee
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