On Wednesday 14 September, European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström appeared before the lower house of the Austrian parliament to defend the EU-Canada free-trade agreement (CETA), which is very unpopular with the general public and has caused rifts within the government coalition.
"CETA is a progressive agreement concluded with a progressive partner and a progressive government. It is the best trade agreement we have ever negotiated", Malmstrom stressed, highlighting the anticipated key benefits: immediate abolition of more than 98% of customs tariffs; unprecedented opening-up of Canadian public procurement markets at all decision-making levels (federal, provincial and municipal); new opportunities for agricultural exporters from the EU and the protection of its geographical indications and sensitive products at the same time; better regulatory cooperation, which will help businesses to comply with the rules on either side of the Atlantic, whilst maintaining high standards and retaining the right to regulate in the public interest.
"These opportunities will benefit Europe and will benefit Austria. Austrian companies have the skills needed to take advantage of these opportunities. And Austria is also very strong at exporting high-quality, high-value food and agricultural products (…) and already exports over €1 billion a year in goods to Canada", she said.
Malmström went on to state that CETA "meets any reasonable standard of transparency", stressing that negotiations had been carried out in close contact with civil society and under the full supervision of the member states and the European Parliament. She added that the entire draft text had been available online since September 2014.
As regards public services and, in the particular case of Austria, healthcare, CETA protects these unambiguously, she pledged. "Local, regional and national public authorities will continue to have full freedom to organise public services as they wish. There is no obligation on anyone to privatise anything. And if services have already been privatised, they can be renationalised", she said.
Finally, as regards investment protection, the system that will be brought in by the agreement on the basis of the EU's new approach "is no longer just arbitration, but rather an investment court system with strict rules on due process and on how to trigger it. It is public and eliminates any risk of conflicts of interest. It explicitly guarantees the right to regulate. And it's the first step towards reforming the global regime of some 3000 investment agreements", 59 of which concern Austria, she concluded. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)