Germany and Belgium Diverge on CETA Trade Deal

The German Constitutional Court voted on October 13 to present the German Parliament  with a long-awaited free trade deal between the European Union and Canada. The future of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) has been in flux since negotiations for the deal first started in 2009, but it is now cleared for ratification later this month. The agreement is meant to make trading between the EU and Canada easier by removing customs duties and incentivising foreign investment.

The European Council, comprised of the 28 member states’ heads of government, first greenlit CETA in July 2016 and decided that all EU members would have the option to vote on the agreement in their respective national courts. The German Constitutional Court heard arguments both in favor of and against CETA, with the anti-CETA group presenting a 370,000 signature petition against the deal.  

One of the main objections to the deal comes from farmers who fear that globalization will hurt domestic markets. Arguing against the free-trade aspects of the deal that would incentivize Canadians to sell beef in the EU and Europeans to sell dairy in North America, French Member of Parliament Dominique Potier said that he does not see “what [France gains] by exchanging these foods from one end of the planet to the other.”

Supporters of CETA point to the fact that nearly 99 percent of tariffs between the two countries would be cut if the deal is ratified. President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Junker called the deal the EU’s “most progressive” to date in a press release issued by the Commission on July 5.

However, the future of the deal now seems to be in jeopardy due to strong resistance in Belgium. Belgian law requires all three regions of the country to approve CETA before it can be sent to the national government, and the southern, French-speaking region of Wallonia blocked the deal on October 13.  

“People fear CETA because it reminds them of TTIP,” claimed a student at Belgium’s University of Ghent in an interview with The Caravel on October 14, referring to the highly controversial trade deal between the EU and the U.S. that many fear could lead to job loss in Europe.

Regardless of speculation and the German court’s decision, the Belgian government must now decide how to precede with a trade deal that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claimed would prove or discredit “Europe’s usefulness.”