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Canada to clinch trade deal with EU in


September
Elusive deal has been locked in 10 months of marathon bargaining
By Chris Hall, CBC News Posted: Jul 31, 2014 5:02 PM ET Last Updated: Jul 31, 2014 6:11 PM ET
Canada and the European Union will release nal details of their mammoth trade deal on Sept. 25 in
Ottawa, ending a marathon 10 months of bargaining since Prime Minister Stephen Harper ew off to
Brussels to sign the initial agreement in principle.
Multiple sources tell CBC News that the text of the full agreement will be made public by Harper and
EU President Jos Manuel Barroso as part of a formal summit between the two sides.
The Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement, or CETA, has been a priority for the Harper
government, but talks dragged out over a series of issues ranging from the protection of intellectual
property to the process for settling disputes between private companies and governments.
Just last week, news reports out of Europe suggested that Germany would refuse to sign the deal a
report later denied by Angela Merkel's government over the so-called investor-state dispute
mechanism, which is meant to set up an independent tribunal for companies to resolve trade disputes,
rather than have them go through a countrys courts.
The deal would give Canada favoured access to Europes 500 million people and $17 trillion
economy.
But there have been growing concerns in Canada with how long it was taking to resolve the nal
issues.
One industry observer compared to the discussions to the game of whack-a-mole: as soon as one issue
was resolved another would pop up.
Former Quebec premier Jean Charest told CBC Radios The House that the longer the talks dragged
out, the more likely that Canada's interests would be overtaken by the EU's trade negotiations with the
United States.
"On these kinds of issues there has to be a sense of urgency,'' said Charest, who played a key role in
promoting formal discussions between Canada and the EU while he was in ofce.
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"We're not going to hold the attention of the Europeans eternally. They have a lot on their plate.
Canada is not even two per cent of the world economy. We're important. We're good. We're
interesting, but we need to seize the moment. and that's what these things are about.''
Progress being made
Government ofcials declined to discuss the timing of the announcement, but noted excellent
progress is being made to complete the legal text of the agreement that is projected to boost the
Canadian economy by $12 billion a year, and create almost 80,000 jobs.
But sources tell CBC News that the signing ceremony will be on Parliament Hill and include other EU
leaders attending the summit as well as Canadian premiers.
It will follow also follow a trade mission to England in the rst week of September, led by Harper and
Trade Minister Ed Fast. Theyve invited Canadian business leaders along to promote economic ties
and the pending removal of trade barriers on the vast majority of goods and services moving between
Canada and Europe.
Sources say that Canadian ofcials have been pushing hard to nalize the deal, in part because
Barroso's term as president comes to an end in October. His departure, as well as the turnover of
others in the executive, could have meant further delays and uncertainty if nothing was signed by that
point.
As it is, CETA will still have to be approved by the European Parliament and the 28 countries in the
EU.
Still, sources say it will be a signicant legacy for Barroso, as European leaders turn to the much
larger trade deal being negotiated with the U.S.
For Canadian ofcials, those EU-U.S. talks represented both a distraction and a challenge, and there
were worries about the impact those negotiations could have on Canadian interests.
"All of a sudden, a negotiation we were driving on our own steam, based on our interests, are part of a
broader play between Europe and the United States," said Charest, who now works with the law rm
McCarthy-Tetrault.
"That's not where we want to be.''
Signicant barriers
Certainly the negotiations between Canada and the EU took longer than anyone thought. Quotas for
pork and beef, patent protection for pharmaceuticals, and coordinating nancial regulations proved to
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be signicant barriers to resolve.
But for Canada, the potential benets are enormous. It would give this country a second major
tariff-free trading partner, while lessening Canadas dependence on the U.S. market.
The benets of this agreement are clear for Canada and the European Union, one department
ofcial wrote in an email. The EUs annual imports alone are worth more than Canadas GDP.
For Harper, successful completion of the negotiations has been an elusive, yet over-arching objective.
He ew off to Brussels the day after his government tabled its Throne Speech last October to sign the
interim deal, calling it a historic win for Canada, and boasting on his Twitter feed that it would lead to
thousands of new jobs for Canadians, and a half-billion new customers for Canadian businesses.
Since then, the talks have dragged on, and he`s had to shrug off repeated opposition demands to see
both the text of the deal, and what Canada was giving up.
Those questions now look to be answered next month.

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