CETA to provisionally come into force in September

Canada and the European Union have agreed that the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement will provisionally come into force on September 21. “It's good news for the globe to look at examples of progressive trade deals that take into account a government's responsibility to be able to protect its citizens, protect labour standards, protect the environment, while at the same time sharing and promoting the values that we share, Canada and Europe,” Canadian PM Justin Trudeau said. The deal will come fully into force, once the parliaments in all member states of the EU ratify the text according to their respective domestic constitutional requirements, which could take years. So far, only Latvia, Denmark, Croatia and Spain have ratified it. “I certainly am looking forward to seeing the impact that CETA will have on future trade deals between other countries where they realize that we have raised the bar in demonstrating that trade can and must work for everyone,” Trudeau added. Trade between the two sides amounts to more than €60 billion a year, and the EU expects CETA to boost this by 20 percent by removing almost all tariffs. Still, one major issue needs to be ironed out, investment protection (Investment Court System to solve investor-state disputes) has been left out of the provisional deal for now.