Top EU lawmaker intervenes to try to save Canada trade pact

His Labour colleague Steve Reed tweeted: “Belgian province blocks EU-Canada trade deal, any tiny EU country can do same to United Kingdom thx to Brexit”.

In an interview aired on Belgian television, Canada’s trade minister blasted the failure to reach a deal.

The stance is tying the hands of the Belgian federal government, which is in favor of the deal, but needs the endorsement of regional authorities.

“Democratic values are the DNA of the European project”. “I feel there is a will to advance but there remain difficulties. these (advances) upon analysis seem insufficient”, said Paul Magnette, Wallonia’s head of government. “I wasn’t asking for months, but you can’t carry out a parliamentary process in two days”. It also fears the agreement will allow huge multinationals – first from Canada, and later from the USA, if a similar deal with Washington follows – to crush small Walloon enterprises and their way of life.

While the EU Commission is handling negotiations with Canada, Belgium’s constitution gives any of its three regions veto power over trade deals.

On Friday, Freeland expressed her disappointment with the negotiations, which ground to a halt as the French-speaking Wallonia prevented Belgium from accepting the agreement and thus made it impossible for the whole bloc.

The hold up also threatens to torpedo next week’s planned visit to Brussels by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to sign the deal.

But she added: “From the UK’s point of view, we’re not looking to replicate a model that another country has”.

“What we want is to develop what is a new relationship for the United Kingdom when we’re outside the EU”.

The wide ranging deal was to be signed.

President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz arrives for the EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2016.

The small region is able to halt the deal because Belgium is split into three self-governing regions and is now led by socialist academic Paul Magnette. “We can now have a bilateral FTA (free trade agreement)”. The vast majority of European Union countries believe in the deal and will presumably seek to find a way around Walloon’s decision, but recent protests in Germany, Poland, Spain and France suggest that it’s not just the small Belgian region that is posing a threat.

The talks were closely watched in Brussels where European Union leaders were pressuring Wallonia to stop blocking the trade deal, which requires the support of all 28 European Union member states. Wallonia, a region of just 3.6 million people, has all but scuppered a trade deal affecting 508 million Europeans and 36.3 million Canadians. Of all current trade between Canada and Belgium, 98 percent goes to Flanders and 90 percent is exported from Flanders. This means that significant powers are granted to regional governments, allowing them to block legislation at the national level.

“It wouldn’t be that odd”.

Belgium, like other European Union member states, operates under a federalist political system.

Michael Roth, a deputy German foreign minister, wrote on Twitter that “this can and must not be the end: CETA sets standards for fair trade and shaping globalization”.