Canada-EU Free Trade: The End or Future of Trade Liberalization /

After initiating and engaging in seven years of negotiation to finalize the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), what the European Union has called the "best and most progressive trade agreement the EU has ever negotiated”, Canada faces an Agreement in peril. [...] The ECSC led to the 1957 Treaty of Rome six years later and the establishment of the six-member European Economic Community, now the 28-member European Union, built on four freedoms: free movement of goods, services, capital, and people. [...] Over the past year, demonstrators have taken to the streets in different parts of Europe, notably Belgium, Germany and Austria to protest CETA, or rather CETA and its EU-US equivalent, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) Canada-EU Free Trade: The End or Future of Trade Liberalization Page 2 by Robert Hage October, 2016 Canada-EU Free Trade: The End or Future of Trade Liberali [...] It is noteworthy that they added, “we have heard the concerns expressed by the German Trade Union Federation and the Canadian Labour Congress.” The statement will also serve as the basis for one more text, a legally binding Canada EU Declaration to be attached to the Agreement. [...] Freeland and all the EU trade ministers agreed on September 22 to draft a “clarifying declaration” that will explain in more detail what critics say is vague language in CETA which poses threats to the quality of public services, the ability to regulate environmental or working standards as well as the use of the investment court system, worker’s rights and environmental standards.