The EU and Canada on Sunday signed a free-trade agreement that aims to generate jobs and growth, though it must still clear about 40 national and regional parliaments in Europe in the coming years to fully enter into force.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau signed the treaty along with the heads of EU institutions, a step that should enable a provisional implementation of the pact early next year with the removal of most import duties.
“We are setting standards which will determine globalization in the coming years,” European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told a news conference alongside Trudeau. “Nothing in other trade agreements will be able to remain below the level of what we have reached today with Canada.”
Photo: AFP
The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) is seen as a springboard to a larger EU deal with the US, known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Treaty (TTIP), which has been the target of labor unions, environmentalists and other groups.
EU Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmstrom said TTIP talks are not dead, contrary to what some politicians in Germany and France have said, but would need to wait for the next US president to resume.
Supporters say CETA will increase Canadian-EU trade by 20 percent and boost the EU economy by 12 billion euros (US$13 billion) per year and Canada’s by C$12 billion (US$9 billion).
For Canada the deal is important to reduce its reliance on the US as an export market. For the EU, it is a first trade pact with a G7 country and a success plucked from the jaws of defeat at a time when the bloc’s credibility has taken a beating from Britain’s vote in June to leave.
About 100 anti-globalization protesters clashed with police outside the venue in Brussels.
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