Canadian Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland announced on 24 August the appointment of Pierre Pettigrew, former Canadian foreign minister from 2004 to 2006 and trade minister from 1999 to 2003, to the post of CETA (EU-Canada comprehensive economic and trade agreement) envoy. His role will be to bring about swift implementation of the agreement in 2017.
“Mr. Pettigrew’s deep understanding of Europe, trade and business will be instrumental in getting CETA signed this year and ratified in 2017”, said Freeland, adding that the Canadian government under Liberal Justin Trudeau had, from the day it was sworn in, worked tirelessly to support CETA ratification in Europe.
“Trade means more growth, and more growth means more jobs for our middle class. Our progressive approach to trade got this deal back on track after it was stalled”, she went on to say, stating that she had been joined since then by Prime Minister Trudeau and ministers across government “in actively engaging key European leaders on the value of this agreement”.
The EU and Canada formally concluded the CETA on 26 September 2014 (EUROPE 11164), one year after the agreement in principle had been reached on the content of the agreement, on 18 October 2013 (EUROPE 11948, 11947). The completion of the legal scrubbing of the text of the agreement, finalised on 29 February, and conclusion by the two sides of the chapter on investment protection (EUROPE 11501) paved the way for both parties to begin the signing and ratification process.
The CETA is expected to be signed at an EU-Canada at the end of October and it is hoped that it will come into provisional effect from spring 2017 (EUROPE 11588).
The Commission proposed on 5 July that the CETA be signed and concluded as a “mixed agreement”, meaning that ratification by the EU would require the approval of the European Parliament and national parliaments (EUROPE 11587). (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)