CETA, along with the larger planned EU-U.S. Transatlantic\u00a0Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), has proved contentious\u00a0and drawn criticism from trade unions and environmental and\u00a0other groups.<\/p>\n
More than two years since the negotiations concluded, CETA\u00a0still needs approval from the European Parliament. It is expected to give its verdict in February.<\/p>\n
Canadian officials have expressed confidence that the agreement has enough support among European parliamentarians to be ratified.<\/p>\n
The parliament’s environment, public health and food safety\u00a0committee voted 40 to 24 for a motion saying the 751-seat parliament should back the deal.<\/p>\n
Parliament’s trade committee is the lead body responsible\u00a0for CETA, but before it holds a vote in January, other committees are allowed to offer their opinions.<\/p>\n
The employment committee recommended in December that the\u00a0deal be rejected, saying it risked job losses and increased\u00a0inequality.<\/p>\n
Effects could be felt\u00a0soon<\/h2>\n
Even after the European Parliament vote, CETA would only\u00a0enter force provisionally. But this provisional application is expected to bring well over 90 per cent of the deal into force, with the exception of controversial reforms to the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) system.<\/p>\n
The ISDS clauses were\u00a0rewritten a year ago to introduce a new investment arbitration court system that the EU hopes may one day be adopted internationally.<\/p>\n
- \n
- What’s in the declarations that sealed the Canada-EU trade deal?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
- EU quietly asks Canada to rework trade deal’s thorny ISDS\u00a0clauses<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Canadian officials joined EU proponents for talks in Geneva last month toward\u00a0establishing a multilateral investment court<\/a> that, if implemented, could supersede the clauses that were highly\u00a0contentious prior to CETA’s signing last October.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Germany](\"http:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/RSSPoster_PRO\/cache\/76a42_germany-canada-trade.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThis protestor in Germany last fall was among the thousands who took to the streets across Europe alongside trade unions and civil society groups, arguing their country’s sovereignty was threatened by the Canada-EU trade agreement. (Markus Schreiber\/Associated Press)<\/p>\n
As those talks continue, the investment court\u00a0system in the current agreement text may be revised further before the required ratification votes and\/or referendums are held in 27 member\u00a0countries across Europe. Malta, the 28th EU country, is not required to vote on its approval.<\/p>\n
Investment protection provisions, parts of the\u00a0financial services chapter on\u00a0portfolio investments and a few clauses that touch on criminal law (member state jurisdiction)\u00a0will also wait for full ratification.<\/p>\n
But most of what\u00a0affects Canadian businesses and jobs \u2014\u00a0market access provisions, tariff cuts (both immediate and phased-in), and government procurement rules\u00a0\u2014 will come into force provisionally. That could happen as early as this spring if the EU parliament votes in favour and Canada’s preparations to implement CETA \u2014\u00a0including the passage of C-30, its ratification bill \u2014\u00a0are complete.<\/p>\n
No comprehensive studies on the economic impact of CETA have been done since\u00a0negotiations began in 2009, but individual sectors are preparing for both the opportunities and the threats the wide-ranging agreement could bring.<\/p>\n
German court challenge fails<\/h2>\n
Germany’s Constitutional Court on Thursday rejected\u00a0emergency attempts by activists to stop Berlin endorsing the accord before ratification by the national parliaments.<\/p>\n
In October the Court had given the government the green light to approve CETA<\/a>, but activists argued that the government\u00a0had not met the court’s requirements.<\/p>\n
![\"EU](\"http:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/RSSPoster_PRO\/cache\/76a42_eu-germany-canada-trade-20161013.jpg\")
<\/p>\nGermany’s Federal Constitutional Court heard an emergency appeal against CETA last October. Opponents have been unsuccessful so far in blocking the trade agreement in court. (Uli Deck\/Associated Press)<\/p>\n
“With the decision published today the Second Senate of the Constitutional Court has established that the German government has implemented the requirements set by the Court before endorsing the agreements on the signing and initial implementation of CETA,” said the Court.<\/p>\n
Critics of the deal, who have organized anti-trade deal protests in\u00a0several European countries that drew thousands<\/a>\u00a0to the streets, maintain that even the revised investment court provisions allow multinational companies to dictate public policy,\u00a0such as on environmental standards.<\/p>\n
Campaign group Transport Environment said lawmakers had\u00a0missed a vital opportunity to red-flag CETA over a flawed\u00a0investment tribunal system and toothless environmental\u00a0provisions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
- \n
- Canada-EU trade deal: Costs for new drugs may rise, but not for years<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
- Dairy industry getting help to compete, not compensation, for EU trade deal<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Francois-Philippe Champagne becomes Trade Minister<\/strong>8:23<\/p>\n
Article source: http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/politics\/canada-eu-trade-ceta-update-1.3929318?cmp=rss<\/a>\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The EU-Canada free trade\u00a0deal received backing from a committee of the European\u00a0Parliament and Germany’s top court on Thursday, increasing its\u00a0chances of entering force later this year. The European Union and Canada signed the Comprehensive\u00a0Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) in October, but only after\u00a0opposition from a region of Belgium and hesitation in Austria\u00a0and other countries. Quebec […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":62957,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-62956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political","tag-political"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
- Dairy industry getting help to compete, not compensation, for EU trade deal<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- EU quietly asks Canada to rework trade deal’s thorny ISDS\u00a0clauses<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n