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Tyee Poll: Why Do You Think Harper Waited So Long to Ratify the Canada-China Investment Treaty?

Late last week, Prime Minister Stephen Harper finally ratified the Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement, or FIPA. It's a deal China signed around two years ago.

Ottawa insists the FIPA will protect such Canadian investors in China and help build trade relations, and says the deal will give "Canadian investors in China the same types of protections that foreign investors have long had in Canada."

But investment treaty expert Gus Van Harten disagrees. He says FIPA is practically a one-way deal in favour of China, and that leaders in Ottawa need to acknowledge those non-reciprocal aspects.

Van Harten also wonders why Harper would wait two years to ratify the deal after it was first signed by China.

We're wondering if you've got any hunches why he waited.