After days of bitter talks in Brussels and Namur, the Canadian trade minister, Chrystia Freeland, threw in the towel on Friday afternoon, 21 October, saying that the talks with the parliament and government of the Walloon region of Belgium over their approval for the EU-Canada free-trade deal (CETA), which it had been hoped to see signed at an EU-Canada summit in Brussels on 27 October had failed.
Her spokesperson said that Freeland had left the negotiations with the Walloons and was...