EU-Canada talks may still be alive
EUROPEAN leaders voiced hope for a breakthrough yesterday in troubled negotiations for a landmark EU-Canada free trade deal, despite a word of caution from a Belgian region holding out on key terms.
Canadian and European Union leaders warn that the EU’s international standing, already battered by Britain’s shock June Brexit vote, will suffer another blow if seven years of trade negotiations go to waste because of internal Belgian politics.
However, EU leaders sounded optimistic that Belgium’s federal government would finally win over holdouts in its French-speaking communities and endorse a deal that requires unanimous approval from all 28 EU member states.
Belgium’s centre-right federal government as well as its Dutch-speaking and Frenchspeaking community leaders, including those from the southern region ofWallonia, resumed the latest of many rounds of talks in Brussels in a bid to break the deadlock.
“I trust that an agreement will be reached in the course of today with Belgium, Wallonia and other parts of the countr y,” European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker told t he Eu ropea n Pa rl ia ment in Strasbourg, France.
But Juncker did not know if the deal would be reached in time to go ahead with a scheduled signing summit today with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Donald Tusk, the European Council president who would host t he su mmit, told t he Eu r opea n Pa r l i a ment he hoped t hat t he ag reement would be finalised soon.
‘Two important subjects’
“The summit tomorrow is still possible,” Tusk added.
Tusk warned that the EU would undermine its standing “if we cannot make the case for free trade with a country like Canada, the most European country outside Europe and a close friend and ally”.
The European Commission, t he EU execut ive, a nd t he Eu ropea n Cou nci l, which groups the member states, are pushing hard for the deal with Canada known as the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA).
The pact would link the EU’s single market of 500 million people with the 10th largest global economy in what would be the most ambitious such tieup yet.
Hinging on the outcome are trade negotiations with other countries, including those with the United States which are also in difficulty. Leaders of Wallonia, a 3.5 million-strong region south of Brussels, want guarantees CETA will not harm local interests.
Critics especially oppose terms of the deal intended to protect international investors which they say could allow them to force governments to change laws against the wishes of the people.
“There remain two important subjects, even if we have advanced on many things,” the head of Wallonia’s government Paul Magnette said.