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October 8th, 2015

NDP REALITY CHECK: Is Harper lying to Canadians about TPP auto rules?

Stephen Harper’s claims about his secret TPP deal have now been contradicted by U.S. and Mexican media reports.

It turns out the TPP deal is actually much worse for Canada’s automotive industry than the Prime Minister has been claiming.

On the critical issue of minimum content requirements for auto manufacturing, Stephen Harper told reporters:

“Just in terms of thresholds, we are no lower than 40 on anything and 45 on most which is a considerable improvement over an earlier understanding between a couple of other partners.” – Stephen Harper, October 5, 2015

But reports from Inside U.S. Trade and Mexico’s Vanguardia now showthat Stephen Harper wasn’t telling Canadians the truth.

It turns out Canadian content requirement for some auto parts are lower than 40% – in fact as low as 30%.

UNIFOR estimates TPP changes will destroy 20,000 well-paid manufacturing jobs in Canada’s auto industry.

If Harper isn’t being straight about just how bad new TPP rules will be for auto jobs, what else about his secret trade deal is he not telling Canadians?

Like Hillary Clinton and senior Democrats in the U.S., Tom Mulcair isn’t accepting Stephen Harper’s TPP. He’s demanding a better deal for Canada.

This is what Stephen Harper has failed to do – and Justin Trudeau is refusing to do.