Cultural protection a NAFTA priority: Freeland

Canada’s continued preservation of the provisions in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that protect Canadian culture is one of the few priorities Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland outlined Monday, as she continued her pre-negotiation blitz ahead of the official start of trilateral talks with Mexico and the United States on Wednesday. While speaking in Ottawa Monday, at both the University of Ottawa and on Parliament Hill where she appeared in front of the House of Commons’ international trade committee, Freeland noted that one of the priorities for Canada heading into NAFTA negotiations is to “uphold and preserve” elements of the agreement “that Canadians deem key to our national interest — including… the exception in the agreement to preserve Canadian culture.” In the spring, prior to the United States’ formal signal that it wanted to renegotiate the agreement, NDP’s heritage critic Pierre Nantel raised the alarm over the potential for cultural exemptions in NAFTA to be at risk, and the exceptions were also targeted by U.S. stakeholders in submissions to their own government. “We have always worked very hard to maintain this exemption,” Tim Sargent, deputy minister for international trade, told the committee Monday in French. “And in a number of agreements — well it’s a bit different, but we always capture this exemption, a robust exemption for culture.” Canada’s priorities for the renegotiation were informed by consultation, Freeland said, noting that the government has so far received more than 21,000 submissions on modernizing the trade agreement. Among those submissions were two from the Council of Canadians and Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA), which both highlighted cultural protections as key NAFTA priorities. Though the United States did not specifically mention the current cultural-protection provisions in its renegotiation objectives published in July, ACTRA noted that its references to non-discriminatory treatment of digital products, service sectors and U.S. investment could spell trouble for Canadians without a general cultural exception. The Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) did not file a submission with Global Affairs, but spokesman Kyle O’Byrne said in an email Monday that that group continues “to have conversations with the Department of Canadian Heritage and to discuss potential risks and opportunities for Canada’s independent media producers as the government begins the renegotiation process with the treaty partners.” He added: “ We believe it is in interest of both countries that the cultural exemption be maintained. This is why we are pleased that the maintenance of the cultural exemption has been identified a priority for the Canadian government as they head in the renegotiations.” Freeland also said Monday the renegotiated agreement needs to take into consideration the 23 years of advancement that have occurred since it first came into force, “in a way that ensures we continue to have a vibrant and internationally competitive technology sector and that all sectors of our economy can reap the full benefits of the digital revolution.” There will be specific chapters to address those technological changes, Steve Verheul, Canada’s chief NAFTA negotiator, told the committee. “On the digital area, on electronic commerce, those will be brand-new chapters that the original NAFTA did not have,” Verheul said. “Intellectual property has changed a lot, a lot of new technology in that area, so we’ll have to be working on those issues.” But digital policy shouldn’t be hashed out in trade agreements, according to the Samuelson-Glushko Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC), which said in its submission to Global Affairs Canada that “NAFTA should not be the forum through which Canada concedes to prescriptive rules on intellectual property and digital rights.” Though concepts such as “increased cross-border data flow and the codification of open internet principles are laudable goals, these issues should not be addressed solely or predominantly through the lens of trade,” the CIPPIC submission said. Digital rights advocacy group OpenMedia also suggested “that copyright law should in fact be off the table altogether when it comes to renegotiating NAFTA,” with a more appropriate forum being the upcoming review of the Copyright Act. But, recognizing the issues will be raised anyway, CIPPIC also recommended preserving the current copyright terms of life of creator, plus 50 years, instead of extending it to the proposed 70-year term that’s been bandied about. According to the Association of Canadian Archivists, extending the copyright term an additional 20 years “would greatly diminish the public domain. A robust public domain is essential in fostering creativity, scholarship, innovation and economic growth.” CIPPIC also stood up for the country’s current notice-and-notice regime for copyright infringement, saying that allowing “Notice and Takedown to be imposed on Canadians through NAFTA would fly in the face of clear democratic will.” Notice-and-notice was also supported by OpenMedia, the Canadian Association of Research Libraries, and by the progressive think tank Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), which called the notice-and-takedown regime “draconian.” CCPA’s submission recommended that the negotiations create “new obligations in NAFTA to enhance the privacy of internet users and to exempt from NAFTA’s investment rules (if they are not removed from the agreement) any government measures designed to protect their citizen’s personal information.” One of those measures — raised by numerous American stakeholders as a hurdle —would be a requirement to store data locally in the country in which a business is operating. The BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association highlighted as “extremely concerning” the U.S. priority to “establish rules to ensure that NAFTA countries do not impose measures that restrict crossborder data flows and do not require the use or installation of local computing facilities.” B.C. is one of two Canadian provinces — alongside Nova Scotia — that requires public bodies to store information domestically. “Canadians are concerned about their personal information being shared in any way shape or form with an increasingly erratic United States,” the association said in its submission. “Some American companies have already started offering a Canadian data storage option in response to market demand, and governments should continue to have the freedom to protect their citizens’ information and privacy rights as they see fit, including by requiring domestic data storage.” OpenMedia pointed to the federal government’s own cloud adoption strategy, released in 2016, which notes that “all sensitive or protected data under government control will be stored on servers that reside in Canada.” “We should be able to make our own data privacy policies without the interference or intervention of other state actors, and Canadians’ sensitive data and privacy rights must not become a bargaining chip sacrificed for the sake of economic gain,” OpenMedia said. The first round of NAFTA negotiations begin Wednesday in Washington, with the second round scheduled to take place September in Mexico, followed by a third go expected to follow in Canada a few weeks later. — With reporting by Charelle Evelyn at cevelyn@thewirereport.ca and editing by Ahmad Hathout at ahathout@thewirereport.ca

Cultural protection a NAFTA priority: Freeland

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Cultural protection a NAFTA priority: Freeland

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