06/07/2017 (Agence Europe) – On Thursday 6 July, French socialist MEP Eric Andrieu described French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe's establishment of a national assessment committee for the EU-Canada free trade agreement (CETA) as a "sham". The establishment of such a committee was an electoral campaign promise of France's President Emmanuel Macron. "90% of CETA will be applied on 1 September at the latest, no matter what this assessment committee says, and 50,000 tonnes of beef will very soon arrive on the European market that has been bred in conditions diametrically opposed to ours on the health, traceability and animal welfare levels. The French government's step would be credible if it began by refusing CETA's entry into force by calling for a negative vote from the French parliament on ratification – which would suspend the agreement and leave this committee time to conduct its work", Andrieu stated. (EH)