The Council of Canadians is calling today’s Canada-EU Summit announcement of the conclusion and finalization of the CETA text nothing more than a desperate PR effort in the face of growing opposition to the deal on both sides of the Atlantic.
“Prime Minister Harper and European Commission President Barroso are going through the motions today to declare for the third time in just over a year that negotiations on the Canada-EU CETA are complete,” says Scott Harris, trade campaigner with the Council of Canadians. “With Germany and Austria now publicly stating that they don’t support CETA as it has been negotiated, and the head of the European Parliament’s trade committee indicating that he doesn’t see a majority in support of the deal, this Summit is nothing more than a face-saving effort for a lame-duck Commission and a Prime Minister with his eyes on the 2015 federal election.”
Today’s official text release by the European Union – the first official release of text since negotiations began five years ago – confirms that the August 13 leak by German broadcaster ARD was the final text of the agreement. A comprehensive analysis of the text was released yesterday by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and is available here: https://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/reports/making-sense-ceta
