Belgium reaches deal to break deadlock over EU-Canada free trade agreement

[webfact]

Belgium reaches deal to break deadlock over EU-Canada free trade agreement

Joanna Gill

 

 

BRUSSELS: -- Belgian politicians have reached an agreement to back a landmark free trade deal between the EU and Canada.

 

The signing ceremony for the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement or CETA had been called off after the French-speaking region of Wallonia vetoed the deal.

 

The Belgian premier Charles Michel hailed the agreement, saying it was ‘an important moment’, adding it was now up to the country’s parliaments to agree by Friday night, meaning it could be signed within days with approval from the other 27 EU countries.

 

The EU Council President Donald Tusk said he would wait until the process was finalised before calling Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau back to sign the agreement. On Wednesday evening, Trudeau had cancelled plans to travel to Brussles for summit for the deal to be signed.

 

The deal, seven years in the making, had been stalled by Wallonia which was holding out for stronger safeguards for jobs, the environment and consumer rights.

 

Coming soon after Brexit, the tug-of-war and the potential collapse of the deal has raised concerns in the UK over its future negotiations on trade when it leaves the union.

 

 

-- © Copyright Euronews 2016-10-28

[Grouse]

So what concessions, if any, did the Walloons win? Slack reporting!

 

Positive news Anyway. EU trade to increase by 20%. Clearly UK should leave ?

[Rimmer]

An off topic troll post has been removed

[jaidam]

38 minutes ago, Grouse said:

So what concessions, if any, did the Walloons win? Slack reporting!

 

Positive news Anyway. EU trade to increase by 20%. Clearly UK should leave ?

The Express is reporting that this deal is FAR from done - and that they are celebrating too early.

 

 I do wish the UK could come back into the EU to help bail out Deutsch Bank- it only wants 150 BILLION euros, Greece(again), Spain(again), Portugal(again),Italy(again) etc etc. That was sarcasm btw - nothing in living memory is as great as Brexit - the remoaners making it even greater! thanks.

[Srikcir]

1 hour ago, Grouse said:

So what concessions

Paraphrasing some info:

• the use of private arbitration courts settle legal disputes will be replaced by national courts
• prevent American companies benefiting from the agreement between the EU and Canada to flood European markets via Canadian subsidiaries
• allow European governments to increase subsidies to farmers, for example if there is a crisis in the milk sector, that the Canadian government will not be able to dispute
• all European legislation aimed at banning genetically modified food and the use of banned hormones in cattle will not be affected by Ceta.

http://www.france24.com/en/20161027-belgians-eu-canada-trade-deal-controversial-reach-agreement

 

[Grouse]

26 minutes ago, jaidam said:

The Express is reporting that this deal is FAR from done - and that they are celebrating too early.

 

 I do wish the UK could come back into the EU to help bail out Deutsch Bank- it only wants 150 BILLION euros, Greece(again), Spain(again), Portugal(again),Italy(again) etc etc. That was sarcasm btw - nothing in living memory is as great as Brexit - the remoaners making it even greater! thanks.

 

I have no idea what your second paragraph means. Please speak up!

[Grouse]

6 minutes ago, Srikcir said:

Paraphrasing some info:

• the use of private arbitration courts settle legal disputes will be replaced by national courts
• prevent American companies benefiting from the agreement between the EU and Canada to flood European markets via Canadian subsidiaries
• allow European governments to increase subsidies to farmers, for example if there is a crisis in the milk sector, that the Canadian government will not be able to dispute
• all European legislation aimed at banning genetically modified food and the use of banned hormones in cattle will not be affected by Ceta.

http://www.france24.com/en/20161027-belgians-eu-canada-trade-deal-controversial-reach-agreement

 

 

Well that all sounds good! It does beg the question why it took the Woolloons to get these concessions??

[CharlieK]

2 hours ago, Grouse said:

So what concessions, if any, did the Walloons win? Slack reporting!

 

Positive news Anyway. EU trade to increase by 20%. Clearly UK should leave ?

 

20%? hahahahaha. I think if that were the case the EU would not have taken 7 years to negotiate a trade deal.  

[ilostmypassword]

1 hour ago, Srikcir said:

Paraphrasing some info:

• the use of private arbitration courts settle legal disputes will be replaced by national courts
• prevent American companies benefiting from the agreement between the EU and Canada to flood European markets via Canadian subsidiaries
• allow European governments to increase subsidies to farmers, for example if there is a crisis in the milk sector, that the Canadian government will not be able to dispute
• all European legislation aimed at banning genetically modified food and the use of banned hormones in cattle will not be affected by Ceta.

http://www.france24.com/en/20161027-belgians-eu-canada-trade-deal-controversial-reach-agreement

 

Well, that does sound like a massive improvement. Go Walloons!

[Baerboxer]

Belgium has reached an internal deal between the central government and the Wallonian state government. Whoppee do!

 

Now those revisions have to be agreed by all other 27 members. 

 

What happens if one other member, or one region of one other member doesn't like them and vetoes the deal? Or suddenly decided it has a new objection?

 

The UK, still a paying member, must be entitled to vote? Perhaps Sturgeon can veto this from some extra publicity 555 !

[dunroaming]

Let's not miss the significance here.  It was a relatively (in the scheme of things) negotiation and it took 7 years to get to where we are today.  Britain thinks their negotiations are going to take two years where it is far more complex and confrontational.  Well good luck with that! Incidentally it took the Ukraine seven years as well for a partially successful deal to be negotiated.

[Enoon]

22 hours ago, jaidam said:

The Express is reporting that this deal is FAR from done - and that they are celebrating too early.

 

 I do wish the UK could come back into the EU to help bail out Deutsch Bank- it only wants 150 BILLION euros, Greece(again), Spain(again), Portugal(again),Italy(again) etc etc. That was sarcasm btw - nothing in living memory is as great as Brexit - the remoaners making it even greater! thanks.

 

In a world where newspapers invariably print what their readers want to hear/believe, the "Express" outshines all the others in it's desperation to please it's badly educated/elderly/xenophobic readership, by presenting them with the sort of nonsense that you have repeated.

[jaidam]

53 minutes ago, Enoon said:

 

In a world where newspapers invariably print what their readers want to hear/believe, the "Express" outshines all the others in it's desperation to please it's badly educated/elderly/xenophobic readership, by presenting them with the sort of nonsense that you have repeated.

Go ahead, shoot the messenger if it makes you feel better. Meanwhile the deal has yet to be signed, earliest possible signing will be tomorrow Sunday. If, and only if, the deal actually gets signed, and then the Daily Express claims otherwise, well then you might have a case against the Express showing bais. Until the deal is signed and you act like it has already been, who is showing bias?

 

 This CETA looks terrible on paper. Helping big business and multinationals over artisan and smaller farmers and firms. Pure globalization, which is becoming somewhat less popular recently. With luck, the Waloons will pull out again, gotta take laughs where you can these days.

[Enoon]

44 minutes ago, jaidam said:

Go ahead, shoot the messenger if it makes you feel better. Meanwhile the deal has yet to be signed, earliest possible signing will be tomorrow Sunday. If, and only if, the deal actually gets signed, and then the Daily Express claims otherwise, well then you might have a case against the Express showing bais. Until the deal is signed and you act like it has already been, who is showing bias?

 

 This CETA looks terrible on paper. Helping big business and multinationals over artisan and smaller farmers and firms. Pure globalization, which is becoming somewhat less popular recently. With luck, the Waloons will pull out again, gotta take laughs where you can these days.

 

Oh dear Jaidam, looks like the "Express" was talking b******s.

 

Again.

 

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/951012-eu-canada-to-sign-trade-pact-sunday/

[dick dasterdly]

2 hours ago, Enoon said:

 

In a world where newspapers invariably print what their readers want to hear/believe, the "Express" outshines all the others in it's desperation to please it's badly educated/elderly/xenophobic readership, by presenting them with the sort of nonsense that you have repeated.

Entirely off topic, more than a decade ago on entering an airplane the hostess was offering everyone The Daily Express.

 

I politely declined and said something about 'awful newspaper' - and the hostess laughed and agreed .

[dick dasterdly]

1 hour ago, jaidam said:

Go ahead, shoot the messenger if it makes you feel better. Meanwhile the deal has yet to be signed, earliest possible signing will be tomorrow Sunday. If, and only if, the deal actually gets signed, and then the Daily Express claims otherwise, well then you might have a case against the Express showing bais. Until the deal is signed and you act like it has already been, who is showing bias?

 

 This CETA looks terrible on paper. Helping big business and multinationals over artisan and smaller farmers and firms. Pure globalization, which is becoming somewhat less popular recently. With luck, the Waloons will pull out again, gotta take laughs where you can these days.

Re. the 2nd para/2nd sentence (incidentally - posting used to be a lot easier when you could just highlight the part of a post to which you were responding!), isn't that the way of the world nowadays?

 

I've always been very impressed by the way the French govt. has somehow managed to protect its small farmers.