Caribbean Trade Law and Development

Tag: walloon

  • CETA Trade Deal Deadlock Broken

    Alicia Nicholls

    UPDATE: Text of the Addendum (in French) is available here.

    The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the European Union (EU) and Canada has finally won the backing of Belgium’s hold-out Walloon region. This is according to reporting by BBC News which broke the news earlier this evening. According to the BBC, Belgium’s Prime Minister, Charles Michel,  has advised that after internal negotiations among Belgium’s federated bodies, an addendum to the deal has been struck which has “addressed regional concerns over the rights of farmers and governments”.

    Hailed as the EU’s most ambitious agreement with a third party to date, CETA is a  landmark agreement encompassing not just the elimination of customs duties on goods between the EU and Canada, but also deep provisions on trade in services, intellectual property, investment, government procurement, inter alia. Though negotiations formally ended in 2014, the agreement has not yet been signed.

    As a mixed agreement under EU law, CETA requires the signature of all 28 EU member states (in accordance with their own constitutional arrangements). Under Belgium’s federated structure, the consent of its regional legislatures is required before the Belgium federal government can sign trade agreements with third states.

    Wallonia is Belgium’s francophone region, with a population of 3.6 million which is generally less prosperous than Flanders, the Dutch-speaking region.  Wallonia’s minister-president, Paul Magnette had raised a number of concerns over the Agreement’s provisions which he insisted needed to be addressed before Wallonia would give its support. These included, chiefly, the potential impact on Walloon farmer’s in the face of competition from Canadian pork and beef imports and the potential impact of the agreement’s investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions on governments’ regulatory rights.

    Monday’s deadline which the EU had set for Belgium to address its internal opposition to the agreement was missed and the signing ceremony which had been carded for today, Thursday, was cancelled. The prospect of one region potentially vetoing seven years’ of negotiating work led not only to concerns about the EU’s ability to effectively enter into international trade deals with third parties, but  on whether a similar scenario would play out in the Brexit negotiations with the UK..

    Symptomatic of the anti-globalisation, anti-free trade furor sweeping over western countries, CETA has faced some popular and political opposition in other European countries as well, although all EU governments (including the Belgium federal government) have indicated their intention to sign.

    So, it seems as though disaster has been averted for now and both the EU and Canada can give a sigh of relief. Wallonia’s acquiescence paves the way for Belgium to sign the Agreement. However, two notes of caution must be borne in mind. Firstly, the exact details of the Belgian addendum have not been reported as yet. Secondly, the addendum will need to be accepted by the remaining 27 EU member states. Suffice it to say, the ending of this story has not been written as yet.

    As an update, the text of the Addendum (in French) is available here.

    Read the full BBC article here.

    Alicia Nicholls, B.Sc., M.Sc., LL.B. is a trade and development consultant with a keen interest in sustainable development, international law and trade. You can also read more of her commentaries and follow her on Twitter @LicyLaw.

  • EU-Canada CETA trade deal hangs in the balance

    EU-Canada CETA trade deal hangs in the balance

    Alicia Nicholls

    The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) negotiated between the European Union (EU) and Canada appears to be in limbo as Belgium’s French-speaking Walloon region has said a strident non (no in French) to the deal. According to media reporting, two key issues appear to be sticking points for the Walloon government. Firstly, there are concerns about potential increased pork and beef imports from Canada which they believe would be disadvantageous to Walloon farmers. Secondly, there is disagreement about the investment court system mechanism proposed for the settlement of investor-state disputes which they argue is tilted in favour of investors and would infringe on states’ rights to regulate.

    The other 27 EU countries (including the UK) have indicated their willingness to sign and so does the Belgium government. So how is it that a Belgium region of roughly 3.6 million out of a total EU population of 500 million could potentially veto a trade agreement which took in essence seven years to negotiate? The CETA is a mixed agreement which means that it requires signature and ratification by each EU member state in accordance with its own constitutional requirements. Under Belgium’s constitutional arrangements, each of that country’s regions must give its consent to the national government  to sign any trade agreement. The Walloon Government has declined to give its consent to the Belgium government to sign the CETA. This has given rise to the quandary now being faced.

    The CETA is the EU’s most ambitious free trade agreement to date with a third party. It not only seeks to eliminate customs duties on all industrial goods and on most agricultural and food products, but covers trade in services, intellectual property, government procurement, investment, inter alia. The negotiations were officially completed in September 2014. The text has been legally reviewed but only becomes binding once the Agreement has entered into force.

    CETA’s investment chapter is novel as it establishes a permanent investment court which would hear disputes brought by investors, allows for greater transparency in proceedings, defines more narrowly the circumstances under which investors can bring claims, includes an express right of states to regulate and includes an appeal system. This new system is a marked departure from the traditional ISDS system found in old school BITs and in investment chapters of most FTAs like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). CETA will replace the 8 bilateral investment treaties that currently exist between individual EU states and Canada and under which claims by investors were heard by ad hoc arbitration panels. The provisions in these BITs were tilted heavily in favour of the investor and lacked language protecting states’ regulatory rights. It should be noted that Belgium and Canada do not have a BIT.

    This current showdown between Wallonia on the one hand, and the rest of the EU and Canada on the other is just the latest episode in the drama playing out between free trade and the rising anti-trade populism and consequent political opposition sweeping across western countries. For example, US ratification of the Trans-Pacific Partnership remains held up in the US Congress and whether it is indeed ratified is not a certainty given the rhetoric of both major presidential candidates. With regard to CETA itself, this is not the first hurdle the agreement has faced as earlier this year Bulgaria and Romania had raised objections to the agreement over Canada’s failure to remove visa requirements for Bulgarian and Romanian nationals.

    The Monday deadline has been missed and it is the first time that one region in an EU country has threatened to derail a negotiated outcome with a third state, a prospect which is not just frustrating for EU leaders and Canada but raises questions about the reliability of the EU as a negotiating partner seeing that this agreement is with a western country with similar values on trade.

    To this effect, Canada’s Minister of International Trade, Chrystia Freeland, is reported as stating as follows:

    “Canada has worked, and I personally have worked very hard, but it is now evident to me, that the European Union is incapable of reaching an agreement — even with a country with the European values such as Canada, even with a country as nice and patient as Canada.”

    Another question is what does this state of affairs mean for the future BREXIT negotiations once the UK makes its Article 50 notification? Some commentators had previously argued that CETA might have been a suitable model for future EU 27-UK relations as it does not involve the free movement of labour. This issue was raised by EU Commissioner, Cecilia Malmstrom, who is quoted in media reports as saying “If we can’t make it with Canada, I’m not sure we could make it with the UK.”

    Alicia Nicholls, B.Sc., M.Sc., LL.B. is a trade and development consultant with a keen interest in sustainable development, international law and trade. You can also read more of her commentaries and follow her on Twitter @LicyLaw.