Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement

The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) (unofficially, Canada-Europe Trade Agreement) is a free-trade agreement between Canada, the European Union and its member states. It has been provisionally applied, so the treaty has eliminated 98% of the tariffs between Canada and the EU. The negotiations were concluded in August 2014. All 28 European Union member states approved the final text of CETA for signature, with Belgium being the final country to give its approval. Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, travelled to Brussels on 30 October 2016 to sign on behalf of Canada. The European Parliament approved the deal on 15 February 2017. The agreement is subject to ratification by the EU and national legislatures. It could only enter into force if no adverse opinion on the dispute resolution mechanism was given by the European Court of Justice following a request for an opinion by Belgium. The European court of Justice has stated in its opinion that the dispute resolution mechanism complies with EU law. Until its formal entry into force, substantial parts are provisionally applied from 21 September 2017. The European Commission indicates the treaty will lead to savings of just over half a billion euros in taxes for EU exporters every year, mutual recognition in regulated professions such as architects, accountants and engineers, and easier transfers of company staff and other professionals between the EU and Canada. The European Commission claims CETA will create a more level playing field between Canada and the EU on intellectual property rights. Proponents of CETA emphasize that the agreement will boost trade between the EU and Canada and thus create new jobs, facilitate business operations by abolishing customs duties, goods checks, and various other levies, facilitate mutual recognition of diplomas and regulate investment disputes by creating a new system of courts. Opponents consider that CETA would weaken European consumer rights, including high EU standards concerning food safety, and criticize it as a boon only for big business and multinational corporations, while risking net-losses, unemployment, and environmental damage impacting individual citizens. The deal also includes a controversial investor-state dispute settlement mechanism which makes critics fear that multinational corporations could sue national governments for billions of dollars if they thought that the government policies had a bad impact on their business. A poll conducted by Angus Reid Institute in February 2017 concluded that 55 percent of Canadians support CETA, while only 10 percent oppose it. The support, however, has waned when compared to the poll conducted in 2014. In contrast, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has a 44 percent support rate among Canadians in February 2017. In contrast to Canada, the agreement has prompted protests in a number of European countries. CETA is Canada's biggest bilateral initiative since NAFTA. It was started as a result of a joint study 'Assessing the Costs and Benefits of a Closer EU-Canada Economic Partnership', which was released in October 2008. Officials announced the launch of negotiations on 6 May 2009 at the Canada-EU Summit in Prague. This, after the Canada-EU Summit in Ottawa on 18 March 2004 where leaders agreed to a framework for a new Canada-EU Trade and Investment Enhancement Agreement (TIEA). The TIEA was intended to move beyond traditional market access issues, to include areas such as trade and investment facilitation, competition, mutual recognition of professional qualifications, financial services, e-commerce, temporary entry, small- and medium-sized enterprises, sustainable development, and sharing science and technology.The TIEA was also to build on a Canada-EU regulatory co-operation framework for promoting bilateral co-operation on approaches to regulatory governance, advancing good regulatory practices and facilitating trade and investment. In addition to lowering barriers, the TIEA was meant to heighten Canadian and European interest in each other's markets. The TIEA continued until 2006 when Canada and the EU decided to pause negotiations. This led to negotiations for a Canada-European Union trade agreement (later renamed as the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, or CETA), and this agreement will go beyond the TIEA toward an agreement with a much broader and more ambitious scope. An agreement in principle was signed by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and European Commission President José Manuel Barroso on 18 October 2013. The negotiations were concluded on 1 August 2014.The trade agreement was officially presented on 25 September 2014 by Harper and Barroso during an EU - Canada Summit at the Royal York Hotel in downtown Toronto. The Canada Europe Roundtable for Business has served as the parallel business process from the launch to the conclusion of the CETA negotiations. After it had been leaked by German public television on 14 August, the 1634 pages long Consolidated CETA text was published on the EU's official website on 26 September 2014. Completion, translation of the final text into 24 EU languages, and ratification is expected to take years since the passage of the deal approval of the European Parliament and the European Council as well as Canada and the individual 28 EU member states as well.