CETA is go
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-37788882
So, grist to the Brexit mill, the deal is signed (and, obviously, when the UK leaves the EU, it leaves CETA as well (though I imagine CETA provides an "off-the-shelf" package that could be used fairly quickly). CETA is a limited trade package, much like the one the government is trying to sign up, so professionals can go work (for limited time) in Canada, but also unskilled workers can be posted by transational firms. Maybe this is what May means by ending free movement, all the power will be in the hands of the employers, free to use workers to break strikes…
I always thought that the media were exaggerating (the pro-Brexit ones gleefully) when over the weekend they were sensationalising that this EU deal with Canada had fallen through because of the opposition of pig farmers in the French-speaking part of Belgium. That was never going to happen.
Obviously, it's not in the bag, but I did wonder how much bribery, fiddling and threats would be applied to get a change: as with many of these things, local politics probably played a part.
According to this report (in yesterday's Times) the Walloon regional government did achieve a concession which leftwing opponents of CETA (and TTIP) had been campaigning for:
Quote:One of Mr Magnette's concerns was a plan for a secretive supranational political body that would settle disputes between companies and EU governments. He secured a ruling by the EU judges that the Ceta investment court would be in line with European law, and an obligation that all proceedings would be in public.No doubt the states involved would not have objected..The proposed investment court would be one in which multinational companies could sue governments for compensation if a change in government policy resulted in them making less profits than anticipated. I wonder in fact if the UK government gave Nissan a similar pledge to get them to stay in Sunderland..
http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/in-focus/ceta/questions-and-answers/Everything you always wanted to know about CETA.
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