Meanwhile, over in copyright land...

I have been focused on the effect CETA would have on patents and pharmaceuticals. Of course, there's lots of other stuff in CETA, including copyright. Michael Geist has posted a copy of his comments to the Standing Committee on International Trade HERE.

If I may nitpick, Geist writes:

1. The inclusion of intellectual property policy marks a dramatic shift for Canadian trade negotiations, which conventionally addressed market entry, investment, and tariff issues. As Dan Ciuriak, a former deputy chief economist at the International Trade department, has noted with respect to the CETA intellectual property provisions: "the process is not a sound one. In a hotly contested area, to have fundamental business regulation made in this fashion is not sound."

I think that the shift to including intellectual property policy in trade negotiations happened a while ago, with the FTA, NAFTA and TRIPs. And arguably much earlier - I think trade and IP have been intertwined for a long long time. I guess it depends on your framework or POV.

Whether this is a "sound" way to do IP regulation is a different question. But, it "is" how it is done today.