Eu-canada trade treaty incites angst from farmers

BRUSSELS The European Union dodged a political bullet this week when the Dutch lower house of parliament approved by a mere three votes — 72 to 69 — the bloc’s free-trade accord with Canada.

The near miss highlights the persistent political clout of Europe’s farmers as EU leaders gathered in Brussels on Thursday to haggle over a new bloc-wide spending plan that would cut agricultural outlays in order to ramp up research and security expenditure. Long a sacred cow, farm aid soaks up almost 40 per cent of the EU’S overall budget even though agriculture accounts for only about one per cent of the bloc’s gross domestic product.

The Dutch drama also serves as a warning for the EU as it prepares to ratify a free-trade agreement with the Mercosur group of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay and pursues similar deals with Australia and New Zealand. In each case, the EU agricultural lobby will pose serious obstacles because of the farm-export prowess of these commercial partners.

The Netherlands, traditionally one of Europe’s staunchest supporters of free trade and home of the continent’s busiest port, struggled to win lower-house backing for the Eu-canada pact in no small part because of concerns about greater import competition for Dutch farmers.

To be sure, even a rejection by the lower house wouldn’t have derailed the deal because it is already in force. For that to change, the Dutch government — or any capital in the EU — would have to send a formal notice terminating the accord and the ratification process would have to be deemed by the bloc to have failed “permanently and definitively.”