Furious Canada’s deal blocked by ‘impossible’ EU

CANADA angrily walked out of trade talks with the EU yesterday saying the bloc was ‘impossible’ to do deals with.

In a sign of how difficult Brexit negotiations will be, the Canadian trade minister said a massive deal was on the brink of collapse because of a region in Belgium.

Wallonia is blocking a Canada-EU deal that was due to be signed next week after seven years of talks. Belgium needed agreement from its regions before approving the pact.

Close to tears, Canadian Chrystia Freeland warned: ‘It is impossible. It seems that the EU is not capable now to have an international deal, even with a nation with such European values like Canada.’

Officials in Brussels had trumpeted the trade deal as the best ever agreed, but as it fell apart, European Council president Donald Tusk admitted it could be the last ever attempted.

The failure will raise questions on how easy it will be for Britain to agree a trade deal with Europe, but it will also demonstrate to the rest of the world how the country could be a more agile partner after Brexit than the unwieldly bloc of 27 EU countries.

The Canadian deal was a stunning setback, although an official at the European Commission, which has been steering the pact through negotiations, said it ‘doesn’t consider that this is the end of the process’. It is unclear how the EU will keep negotiating with Wallonia – Belgium’s French-speaking region – in coming days to solve the impasse.

The Walloons want more guarantees to protect their farmers and Europe’s high labour, environmental and consumer standards. It also fears the agreement will allow huge multinationals – first from Canada, and later from the US, if a similar deal with Washington follows – to overwhelm small Walloon enterprises.

Paul Magnette, the president of Wallonia, spent hours talking with EU officials and Miss Freeland to find a compromise by the end of a two-day summit in Brussels. He had already pleaded that, ‘in an amicable way, we jointly postpone the EU-Canada summit and that we give ourselves time’.

Proponents say the deal would yield billions in added trade through tariff cuts and other measures to lower barriers to commerce. Manfred Weber, leader of the EPP Christian Democrats, the biggest group in the European Parliament, was dismayed by the delay. ‘Europe cannot be held hostage because of internal political games in the Walloon region,’ he said.

Theresa May last night dismissed warnings that the troubled free trade deal raised serious questions about Britain’s negotiations with the EU. ‘From the UK’s point of view we’re not looking to replicate a model that somebody else has,’ she said.