After a long week of opposition and delays, on
Sunday the Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau
and European leaders signed CETA*. The media have
presented the signing as the end of the journey for
CETA, saying that it’s time for everyone to accept
this trade deal as finalised.
But despite the triumphant rhetoric of the signing
ceremony, the deal is definitely not out of
the woods yet. We still have a chance to put CETA
back in the grave. The ratification
process continues and its next stop is the European
parliament, scheduled for a vote in December or
January.
You and thousands of other people have asked your
MEPs to reject CETA. Please share the action
to make sure many more join the campaign against
CETA.
The next steps for CETA
If the EU parliament votes to ratify CETA, the deal
will then be 'provisionally implemented' as early as
2017. This means that the parts of the deal that are
deemed to affect European law and not national law
will be implemented. But to come fully into
force, CETA must still clear some 38
national and regional parliaments in the EU in the
coming years.
The parliament of Wallonia, the French-speaking
Belgian region which has already opposed CETA and
postponed the signing, has been promised that they
will be able to stop the ratification of CETA when
they get a formal vote on it. Unless there are
substantial changes, they – and hopefully other
parliaments – will use that veto.
What’s more, the whole ‘corporate court’ concept
will now go to the highest European court to rule on
its legality – something which risks invalidating
the EU’s entire trade agenda.
We still have a chance to stop CETA when the EU
parliament votes on it.
Please share our campaign with as many
people as possible to keep up the pressure.
Thank you for your continued support.
Guy Taylor
Campaigner at Global Justice Now
*Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement