Lilico: CETA is dead? Long live CUKTA. How Canada can save the best of CETA with a U.K. trade deal
The following article appeared in the Financial Post and is presented with permission of the author.
In August, the French and German governments proclaimed the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership — the EU-U.S. deal known as TTIP — dead.
After voters in the Netherlands rejected an EU-Ukraine trade pact in a referendum this year, the Dutch government says it cannot see itself ratifying the deal, meaning that’s likely dead too.
And, as of Friday, talks between Canada and the EU over, CETA, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, have collapsed.
Much attention has focused on the role of the Walloon parliament in Belgium for delivering the apparent coup de grâce to CETA, but in truth the Walloons weren’t the only objectors. CETA got to the stage where it required ratification by the Walloons precisely because its provisions were controversial enough, in various parts of Europe, that it was decided that not only the European Council and European parliament had to approve it, but also every relevant chamber in every member state.