Despite several Belgian regions voting against a new free trade agreement between Canada and the E.U., representatives of the two sides say they remain hopeful the deal can still be pushed through.
The agreement, known as Ceta, is being blocked by Belgium because three French speaking regions of the country, including Wallonia, are virulently opposed to it. Nevertheless, Canada’s trade minister and E.U. Council President Donald Tusk have both made comments revealing they still think the deal is alive and kicking.
The agreement cannot go through unless all 28 European Union countries support it, and it is the biggest free trade agreement attempted by the E.U. in its history, after being discussed for the last eight years. Every country apart from Belgium is in favour of the deal.
Charles Michel, Belgian Prime Minister, revealed on Monday he didn’t have the support of all his nation’s provincial governments and couldn’t sign the agreement, dashing hopes the deal could be signed by all member states towards the end of the week.
Two separate elected Belgian bodies, as well as the staunchly socialist Wallonia, refused to support Ceta.
Canadian PM Justin Trudeau was still optimistic about the deal despite the Belgian setback, and said in a statement that “Ceta is not dead, there is still time for all relevant parties to find common ground.”
“It’s now up to Europe to sort out their differences,” Canada's federal minister for international trade Chrystia Freeland said. “We need to be patient but the situation can most definitely be salvaged, there is still a possibility for further talks”.
“Under the Ceta agreement, 97 percent of tariffs on trade goods would be abolished, a stipulation agreed upon in the last 5-years of negotiations,” said a key spokesperson at CITIC Tokyo International in a note to clients. “We believe this would boost trade between the two entities by around 30 percent and would be especially advantages to small and medium sized companies.”
However, some critics say the deal would negatively impact product standards and that the terms of the agreement are heavily slanted towards larger businesses.
“We see through this so called ‘free trade’ deal and we will not be pressured into accepting it with the use of ultimatums,” said Wallonia's regional leader Paul Magnette.
Other regional leaders, such as Flanders regional chairman Geert Bourgeois said the veto was “a temporary setback that can be rectified with communication”.
