A Windsor student wants the federal government to lay a proposed trade agreement to rest.
A petition drive is being started by east Windsor resident, Jada Malott, to convince Ottawa to rethink the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
Malott, 14, announced her petition drive outside her home Thursday, accompanied by family, friends, and schoolmates. Behind her was a wooden arbour, built by her uncle, where people were encouraged to sign to express their disapproval of CPTPP. On her family's front lawn were several headstones, each showing a "casualty" of North American Free Trade Agreement in the Windsor-Essex area.
The CPTPP, which is going through a ratification process, is a trade deal between Canada and the countries of Australia, Brunei, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. Canada has put forth an aggressive effort to have an agreement in place since the United States pulled out of it last year.
If it is approved, the government says it will open doors for commerce with key Asian markets.
Though this agreement is separate from NAFTA, Malott says the CPTPP would cripple the local economy in addition to the current trade tiff between Canada and the U.S.
"Rushing (it) into effect now, under the tariffs that have been placed on steel and aluminum, would cripple Canada's auto part and manufacturing sectors," says Malott, who will enter St. Joseph's High School in the fall.
Malott says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had promised to visit Windsor-Essex so he could see how NAFTA had adversely affected local industry. She now wants to hold Trudeau to that pledge and personally show him those effects.
"I would like to ask that him and I tour a parts facility in Windsor, so I can witness him tell one out of eight workers that 'Under the CPTPP agreement, you may lose your job, but it's still a good agreement for Canada,'" says Malott.
Malott is hoping to bring her petition drive to cities across Ontario this summer.
For anyone interested in signing the arbour, details are available on her Facebook page.
The Government of Canada's official website has complete information on the CPTPP.
