Controversial Canada-EU Trade Deal Signed After All

Thanks to CETA, the new Canada-EU "trade" agreement, this statement may no longer be true. It appears cell phones may be seized and searched at the border. But not to worry; so far this presumably applies only to travel between the EU and Canada, for now (source; click to enlarge).

by Gaius Publius

Just a few days after many observers declared that the controversial and much-protested Canada-EU trade deal CETA was dead, the group holding up the process, the parliament of Wallonia, the French-speaking region of multi-lingual and multi-ethnic Belgium, caved to pressure and approved the deal after all. The Wallonia parliament was the last European regional parliament whose approval was needed, and in the end, they gave in. The vote now goes to EU national parliaments, all of which are expected to vote yes.

The Guardian:

The EU and Canada signed a free trade deal on Sunday that was almost derailed last week by objections from French-speaking Belgians, exposing the difficulties of securing agreement from 28 member states as Britain prepares for Brexit talks. ...

[Canadian Prime Minister Justin] Trudeau and top EU officials signed the comprehensive economic and trade agreement, known as Ceta, paving the way for most import duties to be removed early next year. However, the treaty needs the approval of at least 38 national and regional parliaments, including the UK’s, to take full force.

Trudeau was meant to fly to Brussels last Wednesday but he stayed at home when the Wallonia region raised objections that held up agreement until Thursday. Belgium’s regional parliaments endorsed a compromise deal, which addressed concerns about competition for Wallonia’s farmers from Canada, on Friday.

Donald Tusk, the president of the European council, who stood beside Trudeau at a news conference, said the delay was caused by Belgium’s internal politics and that the deal would be far less contentious when it went before national parliaments.

Among those Wallonian objections:

Wallonia has been nervous about exposing its agricultural sector to competition from Canadian farmers. Magnette had also raised objections to a proposed court system for settling disputes between foreign investors and governments.

One concession he won means that Belgium would be able to go to the European court of justice to determine whether a system of investor-state tribunals were compatible with EU law. The four-page document contains a guarantee that the Belgian government will assess the socio-economic and environmental impact of Ceta.

So the Walloons objected to the effect of competition from Canada on their agricultural market ... and to the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provisions that bedevil all of these treaties. (ISDS clauses typically give corporations, and only corporations, the right to sue nations — in special trade-only tribunals — for "lost profit" due to, for example, regulation of industries. "Corporate sovereignty" is a fair way to describe the effect of these clauses, since after the trade tribunal rules, there's no appeal of the deicsion, even to a nation's supreme court.)

So note the solution agreed to by the Wallonian parliament — a side deal whereby Belgium (and, apparently, only Belgium) could go to the EU court of justice to make sure that an ISDS ruling under CETA was also compatible with EU law. Does this right apply across the whole of Europe? Not as the Guardian has written the two paragraphs above.

Other objections raised by citizens who protested this treaty strongly include these, from the tech site FreezeNet.ca (emphasis mine):

One of the many secret trade deals floating around is known as CETA. While proponents say these trade agreements are simply about trade, the details suggest that such agreements are much more about pushing laws than actual trade.

Last year, we dug into some of these details and found a number of provisions that adversely affects digital rights. This includes censorship through site blocking, account termination through a three strikes law, unlimited damages for copyright infringement, and provisions that allow border patrols to seize your cell phone at the border.

Again, "corporate sovereignty," with the power of the state to enforce it. Can you imagine having your cell phone seized at the border because agents want to check it for illegally downloaded songs? It's the wave of the protected corporate future.

The pressure from the rest of the European elites on the Walloon parliament must have been immense. The Wallonians went from thinking this: "Politicians in Wallonia had argued that the proposed deal would undermine labor, environment and consumer standards and allow multinationals to crush local companies" ...  to full parliamentary approval in roughly two days.

CETA still needs full approval of the European national parliaments, but as I wrote above, that's expected. Score one for the holders of big money, and the people that money buys them.

GP
  

"Final Death Blow" to Canada-EU Trade Deal as Delegates Hold Firm Against It

One of the many protests against the TTIP and CETA trade deals, this on in Berlin

by Gaius Publius

In our coverage recently of the European mass protests against the so-called "free trade" agreement TTIP, and its demise, you may have noticed another trade deal mentioned alongside it, something called CETA, the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement. CETA is a "trade" deal being negotiated between Canada and the European Union. As you can see from the image above, those mass protests in Europe targeted both deals, not just the one (TTIP) involving the U.S. Even though it doesn't involve us, doesn't mean the Europeans are any more in favor of it. They're not.

As you know if you clicked the first link above, TTIP is basically dead. TTIP is one of the three cornerstone corporate-friendly deals the U.S. corporate elite is using their well-funded office-holders to enact, the other two being TPP (the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal) and TiSA, the Trade in Services Agreement, which is actually the real killer. (TiSA, for example, would force the fast-tracking of imported non-union, very-low-wage foreign labor. Picture, if you will, the rapid demise of construction unions under TiSA.)

The death of CETA, if it holds, strikes another blow at the heart of the pro-corporate globalist project. This means that of three "trade" deals the Europeans are involved in, two have been killed. This leaves only TiSA, and while that one is much less further along, it's looking more and more possible that the Europeans will do us a favor and kill it too — leaving only TPP standing. Regarding TPP, we may be on our own.

From Lauren McCauley at Common Dreams on CETA:

'Final Death Blow' to CETA as Delegates Hold Firm Against Pro-Corporate Deal

"It's time for a fundamental shift toward international agreements that put people and the planet before corporate profits. That's the message from Europe today."

Dealing what campaigners say is the final "death blow" to the pro-corporate Canada-European Union trade deal, negotiations collapsed on Friday after representatives from the Belgian region of Wallonia refused to agree to a deal that continues ignore democracy in favor of multi-national corporations.

Canada's International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland reportedly walked out of talks with the Wallonia delegation, which had ruled to maintain their veto against the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) after the parties reached a stalemate over the controversial Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) system.

"We made new significant progress, especially on the agriculture issues, but difficulties remain, specifically on the symbolic issue of arbitration, which is politically extremely important," Wallonia president Paul Magnette told the regional parliament. ISDS permits companies to sue governments over perceived loss of profits due to regulations or other laws.

Magnette had told reporters Thursday that the delegation had particular concerns over "matters affecting U.S. companies in Canada which will benefit from the system."

Seems even with a Canadian "trade" deal, the problem the Europeans have is what it allows U.S. companies to do. Still, the obviously pro-corporate Canadian negotiators tried to push it through. And when they failed, they blamed the Europeans for not being "capable" of "having an international treaty."

Friday's talks were held as a last-ditch effort to save the trade deal. After they fell apart, an emotional Freeland told reporters, "I've worked very, very hard, but I think it's impossible," referring to the impasse. "It's become evident for me, for Canada, that the European Union isn't capable now to have an international treaty even with a country that has very European values like Canada."

There's more in the article about the deep and widespread objection across Western Europe to each of these deals. All good news.

Next to Fall: TPP and NAFTA?

Assuming the deals involving the Europeans fail, there's only two more to go — NAFTA and TPP — and both have Withdrawal clauses. Clinton in 2008 promised to renegotiate NAFTA using the threat of withdrawal.

If she was sincere, the same would apply to TPP, which she has recently announced she opposes. I'll be interested to see how all this plays out. At the moment, though, the citizens appear to be winning.

GP