Trudeau, Irish PM tout CETA’s benefits
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is leaning on Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar to help persuade his European counterparts to give the go-ahead to the CanadaEurope free trade agreement.
The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, or CETA, was settled last year after more than seven years of talks, but is in for a rocky ride as all 28 member nations of the European Union must now vote on it independently.
Concerns about everything from pharmaceuticals to Canadian cheese and protections for private foreign investors could cause CETA to fall apart.
Canada and Ireland, however, both have governments that back the deal.
Trudeau is hoping a bit of pressure from the newly minted Irish leader might help sway some of his European counterparts to give it the green light.
“CETA will give Canadian and Irish businesses greater access to each other’s markets. It will deliver stronger economic growth,” said Trudeau.
“The kind that benefits all citizens. It will create more good, well-paying jobs on both sides of the Atlantic. Like Ireland, Canada is very much looking forward to the agreement coming into force.”
Trudeau will meet other CETA members this week at the G20 meeting in Hamburg, but many of them are less decisive in their support, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron.
Varadkar said a commitment to CETA is one of the many things he shares with Trudeau.
“We are both very committed to free trade as one of the best means to create good jobs for the middle class, the working class and also to make us all better off in the long run,” he told a news conference with Trudeau following their meeting.
Canada is hoping the deal will help it diversify its economy beyond the United States, while Ireland wants it because it is tied at the hip economically with Britain, a country in the throes of a messy withdrawal from the EU.
Canada’s relationship with the United States and Ireland’s relationship with Britain are similar, Varadkar noted: “We each share a relationship with a very big neighbour, a neighbour that has to a certain extent decided to go a different direction, at least for the time being.”
Trudeau is the first foreign visitor for Varadkar, who was sworn in as his country’s Taoiseach less than three weeks ago.
The two men were compared during Varadkar’s campaign for his party’s leadership this spring largely based on their ages — Trudeau is 45, Varadkar 38 — and stylish personas.
It was a comparison Varadkar took one step further, nodding to Trudeau’s penchant for fancy socks by showing up to Tuesday’s meeting sporting bright red socks emblazoned with maple leaves and cartoon Mounties.
He even gave Trudeau a pair of green socks as one of his gifts.