PM touts trade deal to Italy’s parliament
ROME Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is praising the benefits that international trade can bring to a world where people are anxious about the future.
In a speech to Italian parliamentarians in Rome on Tuesday, Trudeau held up the trade deal between Canada and the European Union as an example of an agreement that can create new jobs and ensure more people can benefit from economic growth.
“We are proud of it, and you should be, too,” Trudeau said Tuesday in his address to 45 parliamentarians and others in the Sala della Regina, or the Queen’s Room, at the Chamber of Deputies in the Italian Parliament.
“It will create the kind of growth that benefits all our citizens, not just our wealthiest,” Trudeau said.
The trade agreement, known as CETA, is now being considered by the Senate.
Trudeau thanked the Italian parliamentarians who supported the deal, and said it would not have been possible without the support of “likeminded” leaders like Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni.
International Trade Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said the Liberal government hoped to bring other countries onside with trade by making it “real” for people.
Trudeau addressed the anxiety that people around the world are facing as “the twin forces of technology and globalization” are changing everything, and quickly.
But he argued that this could bring solutions to problems like climate change.
“All these things are possible if we shape the great forces of change to deliver progress for people,” Trudeau said. “That’s what progressive leadership does in moments like this.”
“Leaders who think we can hide from these changes, or turn back the clock, are wrong.”