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One of humanity’s widespread idioms concerns a con-game from the Middle Ages, when the buyer of a “pig in a poke” would later discover that he’d acquired un chat en poche (“a cat in a sack” — the French version of the same idiom).

Today, nobody would buy a car without looking under the hood. This is why Canadians should withhold judgement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership — until the full and final text is publicly available and has been closely scrutinized by non-government experts.

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At this stage, anyone pronouncing for or against the TPP either does not understand international trade or is playing politics. The current debates about dairy imports and domestic content rules for automobiles only concern the tip of the TPP iceberg. Or, to continue the metaphor above, the barely visible tip of the still-unidentified creature’s tail.

Take everything that you hear about the TPP under caution. There is an election under way

Modern trade agreements are about much more than tariffs and domestic content rules. They also concern copyrights, patents, services, health and safety regulations, competition laws, government procurements, the recognition of foreign professional credentials, dispute settlement and a thousand topics more. This is why the recently signed but-not-yet-ratified deal between Canada and the European Union is called the “Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement.” These agreements concern all aspects of the economy, and the extent of the regulatory powers of all levels of governments.