by Carmen Elena Dorobăț
Mises.org
A new international trade agreement has hit a stumbling block. Against the background of a decades long deadlock of the WTO negotiations, and the controversies surrounding the more recent Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Walloon region in Belgium has decided to ‘veto’ the CETA (Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement) between EU and Canada. As any decisions regarding the European Common Market require a unanimous vote of regional representatives, this veto appears insurmountable.
These recent events have raised significant concerns about the future of free trade talks. In fact, the past year has seen a rise in the anti-trade rhetoric across the globe, rhetoric often capitalized on by varying political candidates. Before drawing any conclusions, however, we should pay more attention to the many different facets of these controversies.