Brussels, 03/03/2016 (Agence Europe) - The EU-Canada free trade agreement (CETA) was concluded in September 2014 and has just completed its legal scrubbing. Following an agreement announced on 29 February between the two parties on the CETA's investment protection chapter, it will now be sent to Canada and the EU for ratification with a view to its provisional implementation in 2017.
“After the agreement has been translated into the languages of the 28 EU member states, the Commission intends to propose the agreement for ratification by the Council in June, and by the European Parliament in September-October, for swift provisional implementation”, a French diplomatic source told EUROPE on Thursday 3 March. “We will not use the 'mix' of the agreement to delay its implementation”, the source added.
The final version of the CETA's investment protection chapter picks up on all the elements of the reformed approach proposed by the EU for a more transparent system to settle disputes between investors and states as part of the EU-Vietnam free trade agreement (concluded at the end of 2015). The EU has also proposed this dispute settlement approach in the ongoing EU-USA free trade agreement (TTIP) negotiations.
The same source confirmed that this approach is based on the establishment of a permanent investment court (“for which the judges will be appointed by the parties to the agreement and not by the parties to the dispute”), a permanent appeal mechanism with regard to investments, and a commitment to working for the establishment of a multilateral jurisdiction.
“We already had a very good agreement. We've now got a model that will serve as a reference for future trade negotiations because it's a balanced and ambitious agreement that is in line with our values”, the French diplomat stated.
The agreement is balanced because the concessions are “balanced in both directions”, and it is ambitious because it goes very far on non-tariff barriers, particularly on public procurement, where Canada will also open its public orders at the level of its provinces and municipalities. “We're moving from a 10% opening as part of the public procurement agreement at the WTO, to an opening of 30%”, the source stated.
The CETA's ambitious approach to services, regulatory convergence and protection of geographical indications for agricultural products (145 EU geographical indications will be protected in Canada under the CETA) makes this agreement “a model”, the source concluded. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)