One of the country’s largest unions says a small change promised in the federal budget could have a major impact on efforts to prevent Canada’s flooding with cheap goods that threaten local industry.
Once legislative changes are made, working groups such as the United Steelworkers union can launch trade challenges without the need for an employer to join the cause.
The change is something the steelworkers’ union has been pushing for with government officials for five years to reconcile with other nations, including the United States.
From 2017, workers can appear before tribunals hearing accusations of dumping goods, as is known in trade talks, but the decisions are largely based on the impact of the industry.
Meg Gingrich, assistant to the national director of steel workers, said the change would also mean that dispute panels will look at the impact on workers when resolving any dispute – except for redundancies.
She said the impact could include companies that fail to pay pensions or insist on negotiating discounts because cheap goods eat up revenue – “anything hurts workers.”
“It simply came to our notice then. We will have to see what the details really are, but it looks promising in terms of what we can see with these reforms, “said Gingrich, whose union represents about 225,000 workers in Canada.
Canada’s increasingly progressive trade laws
Last year, the government began seeking updates to the rules on trade disputes to give workers more involvement in the process.
An analysis at the time for McMillan LLP’s law firm suggested that adopting the changes could not only help represent workers’ views in hearing hearings, but also help businesses by strengthening the industry’s arguments.
Steelmakers participated only in one case according to existing rules. The CBSA launched an investigation earlier this year after the union and Restwell Mattress Co. Ltd. have filed a complaint about subsidized mattresses made in China entering Canada in the last three years.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Christia Freeland was shown at a press conference in Ottawa before the submission of the federal budget on Thursday, April 7, 2022 (Justin Tang / The Canadian Press)
The budget, released earlier this month, promised legislative changes that, once passed, would allow workers to file trade complaints if a country unfairly puts lower-priced goods on the Canadian market or circumvents import duties.
It was part of a package of promises to upgrade parts of Canada’s trade defense system, which included $ 4.7 million over five years starting this fiscal year, to the Canadian Border Protection Agency to help small and medium-sized businesses. business to navigate the dispute system.
“These are years of paid work and years of our members going and testifying in these tribunals and talking about the impact of unfair trade on their livelihoods,” Gingrich said.
“This is to the point where Canada will have some of the most progressive trade laws in the world.”
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