Courtesy of Mish.
After months of haggling, and shortly after Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister, cancelled a trip to sign the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement in Brussels, the Walloons gave into pressure and agreed to approve the the deal.
The Financial Times reports EU Trade Deal with Canada Salvaged after Belgian Regions Concede.
The EU’s trade deal with Canada was pulled back from the brink on Thursday after Belgian regional leaders dropped their objections to Belgium’s government signing the pact in an eleventh-hour rescue.
The Ceta affair has been deeply embarrassing for EU leaders, who had hoped the deal would prepare the ground for the even bigger Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership pact with the US. Instead the affair has raised questions over the ability of the EU to conclude complex deals that require the support of all the parliaments in the bloc.
The parties came close to a deal on Wednesday night but talks broke up — resulting in the cancellation of an EU-Canada summit that had been scheduled for months.
Before he cancelled his visit, Mr Trudeau said the logjam could still be broken. “We are confident that in the coming days we will see a positive outcome for this historic deal.”
After weeks of fruitless talks, the arrangement to secure Ceta comprises an “interpretative declaration” on the most contentious elements of the deal.
The arrangement will allow Ceta to enter into force provisionally but without the immediate introduction of new investment courts, on which Walloon leaders have reserved their position.
A provision allowing the European Court of Justice to provide an “opinion” on the legality of the these courts was seized on as a victory by anti-Ceta campaigners, but officials briefed on the declaration said any such opinion would not be binding as there was nothing in the declaration to reopen the Ceta pact.
“The treaty itself has not been touched, not a comma has been touched,” Belgian prime minister Charles Michel told parliament.
CETA Haggling Synopsis
This deal started seven years ago and was finalized in August of 2014.
What did Wallonia get for these years of delay?
Nothing. “Not a comma has been touched.”
Not So Fast
