Zombie protest to call on EU to stop CETA from rising from the dead

Zombie protest to call on EU to stop CETA from rising from the dead

Date: 27 October 2016

What: Zombie protesters with banner saying “Stop CETA rising from the dead – Toxic trade deals belong in the grave”
When:  8.30am, Friday 28 October
Where:  London office of the European Commission, 32 Smith Square, London SW1P 3EU

Protesters dressed as zombies will be making a Halloween-themed protest at the London office of the European Commission tomorrow morning with a banner saying “Stop CETA rising from the dead – Toxic trade deals belong in the grave.”

The controversial trade deal between Canada and the EU was due to be signed on Thursday, but was postponed following opposition from one of the regional Belgian parliaments. An agreement was later reached to appease the Wallonian parliament, but the deal has still yet to be signed.

Guy Taylor, trade campaigner with Global Justice Now said:

“The Walloon parliament has done the people of Europe an enormous favour by buying precious time to stop this toxic trade deal from coming into force. Over three and a half million have called for this deal between the EU and Canada to be scrapped, and hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets to oppose it.

These trade deals resemble shambling zombies who do not recognise that their day is done. People have woken up to the fact that they are not about trade, but rather about handing corporations a whole raft of controversial new powers. We need to take advantage of this setback to CETA to put these walking dead out of their misery and consign toxic trade deals to the grave.”

Critics have argued that:

  • CETA contains a ‘Regulatory Cooperation’ chapter which threatens to hand multinationals a greater role in the formulation of making laws, and sparking a race to the bottom in standards for important areas like food safety and environmental regulation.
  • CETA will make it more difficult for governments to regulate the banking sector to prevent the sort of financial crises experienced  in 2008
  • CETA negotiations have already laid the basis for tar sands oil – one of the world’s most environmentally destructive fossil fuels – to flow into Europe. If CETA comes into effect, the import and production of this toxic fuel will increase, devastating the environment.
  • CETA’s locks in privatisation and deregulation at current levels  for a wide range of services.