The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) is a deal negotiated between the EU and Canada which poses a major threat to our democracy, public services and the environment.
The signing ceremony on Sunday means that CETA has been brought back from the dead for now – but it is a ticking time bomb. The Wallonia parliament has a promise that they will be able to stop the ratification of CETA when they get a formal vote on it, and unless there are substantial changes, they – and hopefully other parliaments – will use that veto. What’s more, the whole ‘corporate court’ concept will now go to the highest European court to adjudicate on its legality – something which risks invalidating the EU’s entire trade agenda.
This morning in London, protesters dressed as zombies posed outside the European Commission office in London with a banner saying “Stop CETA rising from the dead – Toxic trade deals belong in the grave.”
CETA - the trade and investment deal between the EU and Canada - was due to be signed yesterday at a Summit between EU leaders and Canada’s PM Justin Trudeau. But the summit was called off the night before as it become clear that the EU would not be able to sign the agreement.
Few people noticed but parliament just made a big mistake on trade. On Tuesday, MPs passed a motion in support of CETA – the EU-Canada trade agreement.
While MPs have been racing against the clock to amend the ‘Great Repeal Bill’ this week, another bill has been quietly introduced into parliament, with serious implications for everyone in the UK as well as millions more people round the world.
After the mid-February approval of CETA by the European parliament, the focus turned to Canada and the member states of the European Union who all need to ratify the deal.
UKIP have been making all sorts of headlines for lies recently, mainly around leader Paul Nuttall’s fabrications about being part of the Hillsborough disaster. It’s pretty despicable that anyone would try to use such a huge personal tragedy for their own gain, let alone lie about it. But there’s another series of UKIP lies that took place recently that you might not have heard about.
Today the European parliament voted yes to CETA, the undemocratic trade deal between Canada and the EU. 27 British MEPs voted in favour of it, although 22 did reject it.
Dear Labour MEPs, we write to ask you to oppose the ratification of Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), the EU-Canada trade deal due to be voted on in the European parliament on February 15.
The final vote on CETA at the European parliament is likely to take place on the 1 or 2 of February, so we have only six weeks to persuade our Scottish MEPs to vote against the deal. So far, none of our six Scottish MEPs have pledged to vote against CETA.
CETA is back from the dead. Last month we held our breath as Wallonia, one of Belgium’s regional parliaments, was able to block the trade deal from being agreed by the EU Council of Ministers. But Wallonia has been appeased for now at least, and so the trade deal moves to the European parliament for further consideration and a vote forecast for February next year. So now it is essential we turn all our efforts to our six Scottish MEPs and urge them to reject the deal.
Welcome to October's update. As the European-wide 'Autumn of Action' on CETA (EU-Canada trade deal) begins, this activist update gives you more details about the stop CETA rally outside the SNP conference. We are also asking campaigners in Scotland to send action cards or take part in our online action to our Scottish MEPs urging them to vote against CETA when they have the opportunity to do so early next year.
As MPs finally get to debate CETA, the EU-Canada trade deal, in parliament today, civil society groups warn this toxic trade deal threatens our democracy and public services, calling on MPs to reject it.
CETA is a corporate dominated deal, the purpose of which is to reduce regulation on business. It is likely to lead to a race to the bottom in standards on food safety, environmental regulations and workers’ rights, and it will lock in the privatisation of public services.
The current trade deal between the EU and Canada is a good example of how secretive toxic trade deals are stacked in favour of corporations at the expense of consumer standards, the environment and labour rights. But a post-Brexit trade deal with Canada could end up even worse if Theresa May and the government continue their approach to making such deals with the same degree of secrecy and lack of parliamentary oversight.
