A pending trade deal between the European Union and Canada that was once a certainty to be signed is now all but dead in the water. That’s the opinion of the Canadian Trade Minister who left recent talks in Brussels. Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland said the EU was “not capable” of signing a trade deal right now. The deal is known as the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, or CETA. The deal would eventually eliminate 98 percent of the tarriffs between the EU and Canada. It’s near collapsing because a regional parliament in Belgium opposes the deal. The region, called Wallonia, is composed of 3.6 million people. That particular region in Belgium has a strong socialist tradition, saying deals such as this one give too much power to multi-nationals, who may even have the power to intimidate other governments. A BBC dot com report said the small region of Wallonia has all but killed a trade deal that affects 508 million Europeans and 36.3 million Canadians.
From the National Association of Farm Broadcasting news service.