Negotiated for nearly five years and four months, the Comprehensive
Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with Canada is now ready for
the final vote by the European Parliament. If MEPs approve it on
Wednesday 15 February, the agreement could already provisionally
apply from April. In 2015 EU-Canada trade accounted for more than
€60 billion and Ceta is expected to boost this by 20%. Read on and
watch our video to find out more about the difference the trade
deal could make.
Ceta would remove all tariffs between the EU and Canada, except
those charged on public services, audiovisual and transport
services and a few agricultural products. It would also lead to
the mutual recognition of certifications for a wide range of
products, from electrical goods to toys.
Who would benefit from Ceta?
Consumers
Opening markets could lead to more choice and lower prices.
Workers
It would become easier for certain EU professionals to supply
legal, accounting, engineering, architectural or similar services
in Canada. Ceta provides a framework for the EU and Canada to
recognise each other's qualifications in such professions. It
would also make it easier for firms to temporarily move staff to
the other side of the Atlantic.
Companies
By simplifying procedures it would become easier for European
companies to expand in the Canadian market. Under Ceta Canada
would open up its government tenders to EU firms more than with
any of its other trading partners, both at federal and municipal
levels.
Canada would also commit to making its tendering process more
transparent by publishing all of its public tenders on a single
procurement website. Currently lack of access to information is
one of the biggest obstacles for smaller companies in overseas
markets.
Protecting EU products
Although the EU would be able to export nearly 92% of its
agricultural and food products duty free, this would not come at
the expense of protection for European products. Canada has
agreed to protect 143 European products that are associated with
a specific town or region and that enjoy a great reputation
because of their qualities, This includes products such as feta
from Greece and roquefort from France.
Guarantees
All imports from Canada would still have to meet EU rules and
regulations. Ceta would not lower or change EU health and safety,
environment and social or consumers rights standards. It wouldn't
change how the EU regulates food safety, including on GMO
products or the ban on hormone-treated beef.
Ceta doesn't cover public services, so EU countries would be able
to keep public monopolies and continue to decide which services
(such as water supply, health and education) they want to keep
public and which ones they want to privatise.
New investor protection mechanism
In response to pressure from the European Parliament, the
controversial investor-state-dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism
-considered a private system based on companies’ choices- was
replaced by the Investment Court System (ICS), which aims to
ensure government control over the choice of arbitrators.
The new Investment Court System would be public, not based on
temporary tribunals and have professional and independent judges
appointed by the EU and Canada.
Transparency
The text agreement with Canada has been integrally available
online for over the past two years ever since the negotiations
were concluded in Ottawa on 26 September 2014.
As it is a mixed agreement, it will not only need to be approved
by the European Parliament, but also by national and regional
parliaments.
