Canada to Clinch Trade Deal with EU in September

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By Chris Hall, CBC News Aug 05, 2014

Elusive deal has been locked in 10 months of marathon bargaining

Canada and the European Union will release final details of their mammoth trade deal on Sept. 25 in Ottawa, ending a marathon 10 months of bargaining since Prime Minister Stephen Harper flew off to Brussels to sign the initial agreement in principle.

Multiple sources tell CBC News that the text of the full agreement will be made public by Harper and EU President José Manuel Barroso as part of a formal summit between the two sides.

The Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement, or CETA, has been a priority for the Harper government, but talks dragged out over a series of issues ranging from the protection of intellectual property to the process for settling disputes between private companies and governments.

Just last week, news reports out of Europe suggested that Germany would refuse to sign the deal — a report later denied by Angela Merkel's government — over the so-called investor-state dispute mechanism, which is meant to set up an independent tribunal for companies to resolve trade disputes, rather than have them go through a country’s courts.

The deal would give Canada favoured access to Europe’s 500 million people and $17 trillion economy.

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