Walloons Relent, CETA “Salvaged” (Or Was It?) Competing Stories

by Mike ‘Mish’ Shedlock
Mish Talk

After months of haggling, and shortly after Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister, cancelled a trip to sign the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement in Brussels, the Walloons gave into pressure and agreed to approve the the deal.

The Financial Times reports EU Trade Deal with Canada Salvaged after Belgian Regions Concede.

The EU’s trade deal with Canada was pulled back from the brink on Thursday after Belgian regional leaders dropped their objections to Belgium’s government signing the pact in an eleventh-hour rescue.

The Ceta affair has been deeply embarrassing for EU leaders, who had hoped the deal would prepare the ground for the even bigger Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership pact with the US. Instead the affair has raised questions over the ability of the EU to conclude complex deals that require the support of all the parliaments in the bloc.

The parties came close to a deal on Wednesday night but talks broke up — resulting in the cancellation of an EU-Canada summit that had been scheduled for months.

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