NAFTA, Corporate Power and the Growing Income Gap
This study looks at trade and investment trends, merger and acquisition activity, corporate wealth concentration, GDP growth, and other economic indicators over the past century in order to determine how trade and investment liberalization—the modern free trade era—has affected the Canadian economy. Notably, the study finds a direct link between corporate concentration during this period and today’s income and wealth inequality.
The timing of the study is important given the current government’s intensive policy of negotiating ever-more intrusive NAFTA-like trade and investment agreements with countries like Japan, the European Union, China and others.
