EU Members at Odds Over Trade Deal with Canada

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By Anca Gurzu, Embassy Sep 09, 2014

EU chief negotiator warns EU parliamentarians and member states of the consequences of reopening talks on a controversial investment protection section.

The controversial investment protection chapter of the Canada-European Union trade deal should not be reopened, Italy’s vice minister of trade said on Sept. 3, putting his comments at odds with those of other EU countries—and raising further questions about the approval process of the much-awaited deal.

“We [member states] gave the [European] Commission the mandate to negotiate the investor-state dispute settlement agreement. Now that negotiations are finished, it is difficult to say we changed [our mind] and let’s re-discuss,” Carlo Calenda, Italy’s vice-minister of trade, told members of the European Parliament during a meeting of the parliament’s international trade committee. “If we move in this way, we will have to open up all the chapters and waste a lot of time.”

Italy is currently presiding over the Council of the European Union, the body where national ministers from each of the 28 member countries meet to adopt laws and co-ordinate policies.

Mr. Calenda was addressing what has now become a point of debate in various European countries on the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, but much less so in Canada.