Lhe rejection by the Senate of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the European Union (EU) and Canada was predictable for a long time. Both of little use to the economy and harmful to the environment, CETA has given rise to numerous oppositions in Europe for more than ten years. But France and the EU need strong friendships on the international stage. After such a snub, they must urgently reinvent other forms of alliance. As host countries of the Paris climate agreement and the global biodiversity framework from Kunming to Montreal, France and Canada would benefit from jointly drawing the contours of an innovative economic partnership, aimed in particular at reducing trade goods and services incompatible with these multilateral environmental agreements.
The senators’ vote sanctions a quadruple failure of European trade policy. A democratic failure: negotiations were conducted in complete secrecy between 2009 and 2014, with no possibility for stakeholders to contribute to the content of the future agreement. Then the ratification process was ludicrous: certain national parliaments having to vote on the ratification of the text more than six years after the start of its provisional application!
An ecological failure: the policy of trade liberalization, without consideration for their ecological impact, favors, for example, European exports of pesticides banned in the EU and imports of Canadian agricultural products treated with these same substances. Furthermore, Canada has regularly used the “dialogue” mechanisms established by the agreement to try to block or slow down the implementation of Green Deal reforms, such as the regulation on imported deforestation.
Then an economic failure: the effects of the agreement are relatively imperceptible on the volume of trade. European exports to Canada increased by just 0.7% between 2017 and 2022, compared to 34% for the previous five years. The largest increases in trade concern polluting sectors such as fossil fuels, fertilizers, plastic products, vehicles, chemicals, iron, steel, aluminum, nickel, transport and tourism.
Constant disapproval
Finally, a failure of the general interest in the face of the interests of big businesses. According to Mark Camilleri, president of the Canada-EU Trade and Investment Association, and member of the CETA negotiating team, regulatory dialogue and cooperation mechanisms ” institutionalized[nt] the opportunity for Canadian companies to make the most of CETA by having a role in decision-making at the EU level”. In the event of full ratification, foreign investors would benefit from a remedy against States when the latter adopt policies that harm their interests, including their fossil fuel activities. This investment arbitration mechanism was deemed both unnecessary and dangerous by experts commissioned by the Prime Minister in 2017. France has just left the Energy Charter Treaty for precisely this reason.
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