The EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement
(CETA), which aims to boost goods and services trade and
investment flows, was approved by the International Trade
Committee on Tuesday. The full House is to vote on the deal in
February.
"By approving CETA today we take a significant step forward. In
the face of rising protectionism and populism, Parliament is able
and willing to act on behalf of European citizens. I stand for a
strong and global Europe and for open markets. Ratifying this
agreement with Canada will enable trade to continue to bring
wealth to both shores of our transatlantic friendship. The
duty of our governments is to ensure that each and every one of
us benefits from this wealth”, rapporteur for the CETA
agreement Artis
Pabriks (EPP, LV) said before the vote.
The draft recommendation was passed by 25 votes to 15 with 1
abstention.
Goods and services trade
CETA will remove tariffs on most traded goods and services. It
also provides for the mutual recognition of certification for a
wide range of products. This means that if an EU firm wants to
export toys, for example, it will only need to get its product
tested once, in Europe, to obtain a certificate that is valid for
Canada, thus saving time and money.
Canada is to open up its public procurement markets at both
federal and municipal levels, to ensure symmetrical access. EU
service suppliers ranging from maritime services through telecoms
and engineering to environmental services and accountancy are to
benefit from access to the Canadian market.
Safeguards for agricultural goods and environmental and
social standards
In negotiations, the EU secured protection for over
140 European
geographical indications for food and drinks sold on the
Canadian market. Sustainable development provisions were included
to maintain environmental and social standards and ensure that
trade and investment enhance both.
To allay citizens’ concerns that the deal gives too much power to
multinational companies and that governments will not be able to
legislate to protect health, safety or the environment, the EU
and Canada recognise in both the preamble to the deal and an
attached joint declaration that these provisions preserve the
domestic right to regulate.
Exceptions
The CETA deal will not remove tariff barriers for public
services, audiovisual and transport services and a few
agricultural products, such as dairy, poultry and eggs.
New investor protection rules
Parliament tracked the negotiations closely, voicing its opinion
in its resolution
of June 2011 on EU-Canada trade relations and also in
a 2015
resolution on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment
Partnership (TTIP) talks. In response to parliamentary pressure,
the controversial investor-state-dispute settlement (ISDS)
mechanism was replaced by the Investment Court
System (ICS), which aims to ensure government control
over the choice of arbitrators and enhances transparency.
Next steps
The deal will be put to a vote by Parliament as a whole at the
February plenary session in Strasbourg. If Parliament approves
the CETA deal, it could apply provisionally from as early as
April 2017. As CETA was declared a
mixed agreement by the European Commission in July, it
will also need to be ratified by national and regional
parliaments.
Background
The negotiations were launched at the EU-Canada Summit in
Prague on 6 May 2009 and concluded in Ottawa on 26 September
2014. The EU and Canada signed the agreement on 30 October 2016.
Canada ranks twelfth amongst the EU’s trading
partners, and the EU is Canada’s second most important trading
partner. Canada is also the fourth-largest investor in the EU. In
2015 the EU imported goods from Canada worth €28.3 billion and
exported goods to it worth €35.2 billion, a figure that is
expected to rise by more than 20% when the agreement is
implemented in full.
