EU and Canada approve new trade deal

The EU parliament approved a deal with Canada that will eliminate most tariffs for business between the EU's economy of half a billion people and Canada's 35 million.

Brussels, Feb 15: The European Union and Canada today cast their newly-approved trade deal as a much-needed beacon for cooperation, with the EU criticising President Donald Trump's protectionist bent as a threat to the continent's prosperity.

After about seven years of negotiations, the EU parliament approved today a deal with Canada that will eliminate most tariffs for business between the EU's economy of half a billion people and Canada's 35 million. Though critics claim it will mainly help large companies, proponents say it will create jobs and wealth.

And, they argue, it is a sorely needed reminder of the world's capacity to cooperate at a time when political forces, even within the EU, want to bring back national barriers to migration and trade. "This is the vote that the world was waiting today to hear -- whether there will be a progressive voice in the world," said Canadian International Trade Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne during a visit to Brussels coinciding with the approval.

"Canada and Europe, I am glad to say, came up to this challenge and sent a very strong signal to the world." The future of global trade was put in doubt after Trump nixed a trade deal with Pacific countries, threatened to get tough on China and renegotiate a free trade pact with Mexico and Canada. In Europe, political parties opposed to the EU's message of shared markets and open borders for workers are doing well in the polls ahead of elections in countries like the Netherlands and France.

The EU parliament approved the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement with Canada by a wide margin of 408 for, 254 against with 33 abstentions, allowing for its provisional entry into force as early as April. At the same time as the EU lawmakers were voting, the bloc's executive also took aim at Trump. "While we do not yet know the details of the policies the Trump administration will pursue, we do know that their instincts will be protectionist more than ever," said Pierre Moscovici, the EU's economic and financial affairs chief.

"That means that the international trading and security architecture to which we owe our unprecedented peace and prosperity is also threatened as never before. So let us mobilise" Moscovici said at the University of Athens. The belligerent mood was also palpable at the EU's legislature in Strasbourg, France.

"President Trump has given us another good reason to intensify our links with Canada -- while Trump introduces tariffs, we are not only tearing them down but also setting the highest progressive standards," said Guy Verhofstadt, the leader of the EU parliament's ALDE liberal group. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is set to address the EU legislature tomorrow.

PTI