MacLean’s columnist Paul Wells writes, “Everybody connected to the (Canada-EU CETA) negotiations assures me there will be a deal. Every public sign I see makes me think there won’t. …The nationalist Council of Canadians lists more than 70 municipalities and municipal organizations that have debated local resolutions demanding that they be exempted from CETA’s procurement provisions. …Harper has tried to play this file differently from the way Brian Mulroney played the Canada-U.S. free trade wars. He thought he could low-bridge CETA, keep the whole process low-key, avoid ratcheting up the tension. Now the deal’s opponents have outflanked him on every side. He can still storm ahead, reach a deal and pass it with nobody else’s approval. …Something, or a bunch of somethings, has made this negotiation drag on twice as long as the government first hoped. All those somethings remain. It’ll be an interesting end to a long year for this Prime Minister.”
His full column is at http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/11/15/the-slippery-road-to-an-eu-trade-deal/.
More on the Council of Canadians campaign against Canada-EU CETA at http://canadians.org/ceta.
