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OTTAWA — Thomas Mulcair was labelled an anti-trade, anti-business extremist Wednesday for threatening to rip up a controversial investment treaty with China.

But the NDP leader did not back down. Indeed, he ratcheted up the rhetoric against the Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Act, vowing that an NDP government would not be bound to honour a treaty ratified by the Harper government.

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“Let me be very clear,” Mulcair told the House of Commons.

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“The Conservatives will not tie the hands of the NDP. We will revoke this agreement if it is not in the best interests of Canadians.”

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the treaty is the product of almost 20 years of negotiations, designed to give Canadian investors in China the same protection that Chinese investors have in Canada. He ridiculed Mulcair’s threat to abrogate the deal.

New Democrats support trade. We just do not support selling out Canada

“The leader of the NDP is saying he would revoke the hard-earned right of Canadian investors to be protected in a marketplace like China. That is precisely why Canadian investors, the Canadian business community and the Canadian public at large does not trust the NDP with economic policy,” Harper said.