EU, Canada Celebrate One Year Of Trade Deal

Accra, Sept. 20, (DPA/GNA) - The European Union and Canada are both benefiting from a trade deal implemented one year ago, the EU's executive said Thursday, amid lingering opposition to the agreement that struggled to get off the ground.

Global trade relations have been strained by US tariff increases and protectionist policies espoused by US President Donald Trump. Canada and the EU have been standing up for rules-based international trade in response to Trump's approach.

The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) came into force on September 21, 2017. It was signed a year earlier after the Belgian region of Wallonia put up a fight that required the last-minute addition of extra provisions to the deal.

Opposition has flared up again in recent months, with Italy's new populist government threatening not to ratify the deal in the Italian parliament.

Critics believe CETA may erode European consumer standards and cause problems for EU economies, including uncertainty over investor rights.

But EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said there is "plenty to celebrate," even though the deal has not yet delivered on all its potential benefits.

"[O]ur partnership with Canada is stronger than ever - strategically as well as economically," she added.

Sectors such as machinery and mechanical appliances, pharmaceuticals, furniture, footwear and clothing in the EU were all doing especially well under CETA, the commission wrote in a statement.

It highlighted Italian producers of San Daniele ham whose sales to Canada had increased 35 per cent, as well as a Belgian chocolate company that had just opened its first shop in Ontario to cope with extra demand.

All EU countries must ratify CETA for it to fully take effect.