CETA summit in Brussels cancelled

Thursday’s planned summit with Canada, was cancelled by the European Union after the sides could not resolve an internal Belgian deadlock. All 28 members of the EU must accept the deal, but until now only the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders in Belgium has given the green light to CETA.

The “free trade deal” known as the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the EU and Canada ended without a breakthrough on Wednesday. Late on Wednesday, Canada confirmed that its delegation would not be traveling to Brussels.

“Given that not all EU member states are ready to sign the CETA, the EU-Canada summit will not start today as planned,” an EU source told the DPA news agency on condition of anonymity.

Wallonian lawmakers say they are concerned about the extent to which the deal would be encroaching on national laws, hurting farming and workers.

Donald Tusk, president of the European Council and host of the planned EU-Canada summit, has warned the EU’s “reputation” would suffer if the deal falls through, because Canada is “the most European country outside Europe and a close friend and ally.”

The deal would give multinationals based in Canada’s, a backdoor into Europe, overriding national laws. Such an unfair advantage to international investors, could corrode labor, consumer and environmental standards.

Critics have also objected by saying large companies could have outside influence over the governments of Canada and Europe.

“Canada remains ready to sign this important agreement when Europe is ready,” a the spokesperson for Canada’s International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland, told German news agency DPA, but the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, had been due to meet the EU leaders in Brussels, decided at the last minute not to get on the plane.

The Belgian prime minister, Charles Michel, had tried to save the deal at the last minute. He said leaders of five regional parliaments had reached an agreement with the federal government shortly after midday on Thursday. However the Belgian compromise came too late.

The Belgian proposal is a four-page text included in the 1 600-page treaty, contains a guarantee that the Belgian government will assess the socio-economic and environmental impact of Ceta.

The comprehensive economic and trade agreement (Ceta), which has been seven years in the making before it ran into the present difficulties, had proposed a new court system for settling disputes between foreign investors and governments.

One of the concessions include Belgium being able to go to the European court of justice to determine whether the new investor-state special tribunals are compatible with EU law.

The Walloon minister-president Paul Magnette, who scuppered the deal, has been dubbed “Super-Magnette” in the Belgian media. He commented on the new text saying: “Wallonia is extremely happy that our demands have been heard.”

Paul Magnette (Wikipedia)

The special court that Ceta would create has proved so controversial that the commission has decided it will not come into force immediately, because EU member states have insisted that their national parliaments should retain jurisdiction.

Full implementation of the EU-Canada trade deal would lead to the creation of an exclusive trade court to replace the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), the existing system for resolving trade disputes that has existed for at least 60 years, but critics say the scope ISDS gives private companies to sue governments, is too large.

Even if the EU and Canada cross the next hurdles and sign the treaty in the coming weeks, Ceta will only be implemented following ratification by at least 38 national and regional parliaments in Europe. Cecilia Malmström, the EU trade commissioner, still expressed hope that a deal could be reached, but others were less sure.

Donald Tusk tweeted that he would wait to contact Trudeau nevertheless.