Green Party’s big moment over the EU-Canada trade deal draws nearer
‘CANADA is like America – just a lot nicer.” So, what’s so awful about an EU-Canada trade deal? The Green Party’s internal divisions on the issue were put aside but never resolved before Christmas due to a threat of failure to get TDs and senators to ratify the trade agreement. The issue was “politically parked” last month pending an expected Dáil committee review that was seen as a Government device to minimise Green Party divisions and get the lucrative trade deal over the line.
This awkward row – which has left many in Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael rather bewildered – is about to come back into view this week as a lowlevel mini turf war over which Oireachtas committee should do the review looks close to resolution. It now appears likely the EU affairs committee will take it on and public proceedings are expected later in the month.
We can expect Sinn Féin and Solidarity People Before Profit to make every effort to highlight Green Party tensions in moves also aimed at stretching Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael patience. There is a view across many parties at Leinster House that the Green Party may lose at least two TDs over the issue, with entrenched objections coming from Neasa Hourigan and Patrick Costello.
Some in Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael – and indeed among the Green Party ranks itself – tend to paraphrase Shakespeare’s Macbeth talking about his impending murder of the Scottish king, when it comes to a potential loss of Green TDs. “If it were to be done – ’twere better done quickly.”
But even opponents of the deal acknowledge this EU-Canada trade deal is potentially very lucrative for Irish exporters. They point out that, with the exception of France and its links to French-speaking Quebec, Ireland is the closest EU state, culturally and politically, to Canada.
It was very hard won, taking seven years to craft, and it has been applied provisionally since 2017 as about half the EU states managed to give it the necessary green light in their national parliaments. Supporters of the deal say Irish exports to Canada have grown in the interim from €1.2bn per year to almost €2bn.
The problem rests with a business arbitration scheme that enables business dispute resolution outside of the courts for Canadian investors in the EU. The so-called investor courts system was something Green Party leader Eamon Ryan and others, including Dublin MEP Ciarán Cuffe opposed during their opposition years.
Campaigning politicians and NGOs raised fears that national and EU environmental and social laws could be set aside by this arbitration process. Opposition was by no means confined to Ireland.
When the French-speaking Walloon assembly in Belgium objected along these lines to the draft deal in 2017, the matter was referred to the EU Court of Justice in Luxembourg. The judges said the tribunals set up by the agreement could not have the power to interpret or to apply EU law, other than those in the deal, in a way that could hinder the power of EU institutions.
In April 2019 the Luxembourg court ruled that the EU-Canada deal did not override EU law and there were also provisions that deprived the dispute-solving tribunals of questioning the choices of states on protection of public order, public safety, food safety, the protection of public morals, consumer protection, protection of fundamental rights and human life and health. The court said the deal offered remedies for foreign investors, but their situation was “not comparable to that of investors of member states”.
This is part of the reason Eamon Ryan says the EUCanada deal is now acceptable. He and others also argue that ratification of this deal is implicit in their coalition deal with the other two parties.
This point is also contested by opponents of the trade deal. Party strategists will be trying to minimise evidence of internal dissent. But that may be a tall order.