Canada needs to reset its free trade plans with Ecuador

International relations today are rife with difficult challenges to peace, security, democracy, the rule of law, human rights, and a healthy environment.

Prime Minister Mark Carney calls this a “hinge moment” for Canada—a chance to lessen our reflexive economic and security ties to the United States, and strive for wider and more equitable foreign and trade relations.

We could not agree more. Canada can and should transform the role it has played internationally, to meet sovereign nations on equal grounds and forge agreements that guarantee civil, political, social, economic, and environmental rights.

However, the recently concluded free trade agreement with Ecuador is the furthest thing from a “hinge.”

Canada must diversify its trade relations to buffer against risks emanating from the White House. The reset we need is one that ensures any new trade agreements undertake due diligence, in line with United Nations standards and recommendations, to ensure full compliance with human rights obligations, including the rights and sovereignty of Indigenous Peoples and the right to a healthy environment.

It is for these reasons Canada must not implement a highly problematic free trade agreement negotiated with Ecuador by the Trudeau government in 2024.

The deal will have an insignificant effect on two-way trade flows, and is aimed more at protecting Canadian mining investment in the South American nation from democratic and Indigenous opposition.

Indigenous, subsistence farmer, human rights, and environmental organizations in Ecuador have repeatedly expressed deep concern that the trade deal will exacerbate a dire human rights situation and pose a threat to ecologically sensitive areas of the country.

In October 2024, we hosted a visit by courageous Ecuadorian Indigenous women and water defenders who met with government leaders to share disturbing testimony of human rights violations linked to Canadian mining projects.

They called on Canada not to sign any deal unless Indigenous Peoples in Ecuador give their free, prior, and informed consent—a recommendation also made by the House of Commons Trade Committee in its June 2024 report to the Trudeau government.

The Ecuadorian defenders also expressed deep concern—as we have in Canada—about the inclusion of an investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) process that a majority of Ecuadorians rejected in a national referendum last year.

UN reports warn of the catastrophic consequences of ISDS for human rights and the environment. You only have to look at Panama and Peru to see how Canadian corporations are using ISDS to leverage government action that favours their investment over public interests.

In October 2024, the leaders of six Canadian labour unions asked former prime minister Justin Trudeau to halt the free trade negotiations, and for rights to be upheld. In June, the same unions, along with 23 other respected Canadian organizations, reiterated these demands in a joint letter to Carney, which expressed concerns the government is moving to ratify the Ecuador deal at warp speed.

Equally disturbing, the Ecuadorian government has sent the military into communities speaking out about the negative impacts from Canadian mining projects. President Daniel Noboa has also enacted executive decrees to limit community participation in environmental decision-making processes. UN bodies have repeatedly called out these violations of international human rights standards. Canada should not be ignoring them.

Since 2023, more than 100 environmental defenders have been prosecuted with unfounded charges, and some have been jailed for peacefully protesting Canadian mining projects in Ecuador.

If the Canada-Ecuador free trade deal is ratified by the Canadian Parliament in its current form—with its excessive investor rights and unenforceable inclusive trade chapters—it will only exacerbate a human rights crisis affecting Indigenous Peoples and communities seeking to protect precious water and the right to a healthy environment.

It is imperative that the federal government hits reset on the Canada-Ecuador Free Trade Agreement. Trade with any country must not sacrifice human rights and the environment.

Peggy Nash is executive director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Viviana Herrera is co-manager at MiningWatch Canada. Caren Weisbart is coalition co-ordinator at Common Frontiers.

A version of this article was first published by The Hill Times on July 21, 2025.