Wallonia does not ratify the EU trade agreement and Canada
BRUSSELS, 15 Feb — RIA Novosti, Alexander Shishlo. The Walloon Parliament will not ratify the trade agreement the EU and Canada (CETA), said Wednesday the head of the government of the French-speaking region of Belgium Paul Magnet.
“Wallonia does not ratify CETA, until you have met all of our conditions that we set”, — he wrote on his Twitter page.
The European Parliament on Wednesday ratified CETA, 408 MPs voted “against” — 254, 33 abstained. Meanwhile, a petition urging the European Parliament not to ratify the trade agreement between the EU and Canada, was signed by 3.5 million citizens of the European Union.
Bilateral economic and trade agreement the EU and Canada signed on 30 October 2016. It will start partially pre-applied by the EU following approval by the European Parliament. For the final entry into force will require ratification by all EU countries.
The signing of CETA was scheduled a few days earlier, but was postponed because it was blocked by three French-speaking the subject of the Belgian Federation, led by Wallonia. As a result of negotiations, the regions gave the Belgian government a mandate to sign the agreement in exchange for the performance of a number of requirements in relation to CETA.
The signing of the Treaty, resisted the demands of the Belgian regions in respect of measures of protection of the interests of European farmers and resolution of disputes in arbitration court. The text SET provides that any legal entity may submit to arbitration a claim against the government of one of the countries-EU members, if it considers that its policy causes the company financial harm.
According to Belgian parliamentarians-Francophones, CETA in its original form, reflected the interests only of multinational companies, which pursue the goal of reducing control and the weakening of regulatory measures in Europe.
SETH when working at full force would have to cancel around 98% of the tariffs that currently apply to trade between EU countries and Canada. In Brussels expect that the implementation agreement will increase the trade turnover between the parties at 12 billion euros per year.