BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Canada’s trade minister said on Saturday it was up to the European Union to save a free trade deal that is being blocked by opposition from Belgian’s French-speaking region.
Chrystia Freeland said Canada is ready to sign the pact and that negotiations on its fine points were over.
“We have done our job. We have finished negotiating a very good agreement. Now the ball is in Europe’s court,” she said after meeting with Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament, and ahead of her flight home.
All 28 EU governments support the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), but Belgium cannot give assent withoutbacking from its five sub-federal administrations. French-speaking Wallonia has steadfastly opposed it.
Schulz, who is not directly involved in CETA talks but has good working ties with Freeland, held an emergency meeting with Walloon premier Paul Magnette in a bid to revive the deal.
“The door for every step forward is open but it’s quite clear that the problems on the table are European problems,” Schultz said ahead of the meeting. “There is still work to do on our side … but I am very optimistic that we can solve the problems we have within the European Union.”
Freeland quit talks on Friday with chief Canadian and EU trade negotiators and Magnette, declaring reaching a deal with the EU was “impossible.”
The agreement, the EU’s first with a Group of Seven country,would, according to supporters, increase trade between thepartners by 20 percent.
EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said she still hoped to find a solution to the deal, which was due to signed at a summit next Thursday with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Wallonia is home to about 3.5 million people, less than 1percent of the 507 million Europeans CETA would affect, but theEU’s flagship trade project rests on the will of its government.
Walloons have concerns about the threat of surging pork and beef imports from Canada and an independent court system to settle disputes between states and foreign investors, which critics fear hands power to multinationals.
Many EU leaders also suspect the local government in Namurof using its devolved powers to play domestic politics.
The issue is greater than just a trade deal with Canada, theEU’s 12th-largest trading partner.
If CETA fails, the EU’s hopes of completing similar deals with the United States or Japan would be in tatters, undermining a bloc already battered by Britain’s vote to leave it and disputes over Europe’s migration crisis.
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