Trade deal with Europe may not be dead
Last-minute meeting to be held Saturday
OTTAWA • Canada’s trade deal with Europe may not yet be dead, despite International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland walking out of talks with Wallonia’s prime minister, Paul Magnette, on Friday as it appeared the Belgian region would miss a European Union-imposed deadline for support on the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).
Just hours after Freeland said she was “very, very sad” and leaving the country due to the collapse of the trade talks, the president of the European Parliament announced a last-minute meeting with her for Saturday morning.
“We can’t stop at last mile,” Martin Schulz said in a tweet, which said the meeting with Freeland would be followed by one with Magnette.
Freeland left the Walloon parliament in Namur on Friday on the verge of tears.
The trade minister was quoted in French as saying she was “very, very sad” things hadn’t worked out and she had decided to return to Canada.
Interviewed by reporters after several days of negotiations, Freeland said it seemed evident the European Union was not currently capable of securing an international agreement, “even with a country with European values such as Canada, even with a country as nice and as patient as Canada.”
“Canada is disappointed. I am personally very disappointed. I worked very, very hard,” she said.
The European Union had asked Belgium to secure support for CETA by Friday, but the Belgian government, despite itself supporting the deal, cannot sign on until its regional parliaments agree. Wallonia is the last holdout.
Following Freeland’s departure from the talks on Friday, Magnette told reporters he remained open to further discussions. However, the Walloons need more time to look at the file, he said.
The EU’s chief trade negotiator, Cecilia Malmström, tweeted that she, too, was “sad” talks had halted. “Still hope to find solution in order to sign CETA,” she said. “I sincerely believe this is not the end of the process.”
In Ottawa, Rona Ambrose, the Conservative party’s interim leader, accused Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of being absent on the freetrade file, saying the previous government had “giftwrapped” the deal for their successors.
Ambrose also told the National Post she found Freeland’s reaction unusual.
“It’s highly unusual for a trade minister to walk and say, first of all, ‘I’ve been kind and patient but now I’m going home,’ ” she said.
Perrin Beatty, president and CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said he didn’t disagree with Freeland’s decision to step back from the process. “At this point, Canada has done what it can to try to be helpful,” he said. “The ball is very much in Europe’s court. This is a matter of internal politics within Europe and they have to resolve it themselves.”
Beatty called CETA, which took seven years to negotiate, the “most modern and progressive trade agreement in the world.”
Groups more critical of trade agreements chimed in with support for Wallonia on Friday. Sujata Dey, trade campaigner for the Council of Canadians, said in a statement that the message from Europe was a desire to “shift toward international agreements that put people and the planet before corporate profits.”
Tracey Ramsey, trade critic for the NDP, said she thinks Walloon concerns echo those of Canadians wary of the deal, including worries over the cost of drugs, the protection of farmers and investor-state dispute mechanisms.
Green party leader Elizabeth May said in a statement that she applauded Wallonia “for standing firmly against this bad deal. “In its current form, CETA will increase pharmaceutical costs and hurt farmers, manufacturing sectors and Canadian sovereignty,” May said.
Wallonia’s blockade wasn’t the only concern remaining as the EU’s CETA deadline slipped by. Bulgaria and Romania were still seeking guarantees for visa-free travel for their citizens, renewing worries they could veto the deal.
If the EU doesn’t secure unanimous support from its 28 member states to approve CETA, the signing ceremony planned for next week, which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was to attend, will be cancelled.
A former senior government official involved in CETA negotiations during the Conservative government said they were surprised the trade deal appeared on the verge of collapse, but believe it’s not necessarily dead yet.
“There’s a bit of ballet, a bit of theatre going on here,” the source said.
CETA would offer Canada access to a market of more than 500 million people and add an estimated $12 billion to the Canadian economy while increasing bilateral trade by about 20 per cent.
THIS IS A MATTER OF INTERNAL POLITICS WITHIN EUROPE.