A government panel is in Windsor today for community consultations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
The trade deal involving 12 countries around the world covers all industries including automotive, agriculture and pharmaceuticals.
The Windsor District Labour Council made their objections clear with a rally across from the Best Western Waterfront Hotel where the the consultations took place.
Unifor Local 200 President Chris Taylor says it threatens jobs in the automotive industry and therefore threatens the way of life for many Canadians.
"If this deal goes through, the sector that I represent in automotive and automotive parts stands to lose 20,000 jobs," says Taylor.
The union's objections were echoed inside toward the government panel.
"The Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement that is before us, offers no benefit to Canada's auto industry. It is hard to see how the TPP will help attract new auto investment to Canada. Our fear is that it'll simply drive it away," says Unifor Local 444 President Dino Chiodo.
Others like Matt Marchand, president of the Windsor-Essex Chamber of Commerce, fears Canada will be disadvantaged because the agreement does nothing to address currency manipulation.
"Other countries can devalue their currency to gain a competitive advantage over us relatively easily so that puts our job and our economy in a very precarious position," he says.
Still others worry what it will mean to Canada if the agreement is not signed.
"Canada will become irrelevant on a global stage," says Linda Hasenfratz, CEO Linamar an Ontario manufacturing company.
Bill Anderson with the Cross-Border Institute at the University of Windsor says this will be particularly true if the US and Mexico sign the agreement and Canada does not.
"It's going to create a lot of difficult situations for Canada to be out, especially with respect to customs and the movement of goods across the border and the competitive position of Ontario manufacturers relative to manufacturers in United States and Mexico," says Anderson.
Still others worry about there being a level playing field with the US if the agreement is signed. The United States has negotiated different terms in many clauses of the agreement. For example Canada agreed to phase out its 6.1% tariff on imports of Japanese vehicles over a five-year period while the US will still have the tariff for another 25 years.
"We are all for international trade, we are all for free-trade, as long as it's on a level playing field," said Rakesh Naidu, interim CEO with the Windsor-Essex Economic Development Corporation. "We're deeply concerned with the failure of the trade deal to align with our US counterparts regarding phase out of tariffs."
The government panel is going across the country to gather opinions on the TPP before presenting a report to the House of Commons. Written submissions are also being collected until June 30, 2016.
"We're trying to find out as much as we can about the deal before we decide whether or not to ratify it and we want to hear from as many Canadians as possible," said Kyle Peterson, Liberal MP for Newmarket-Aurora who sits on the panel.