BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgium’s regions agreed to a free trade pact with Canada on Thursday, ending weeks of uncertainty when internal divisions in just one country blocked the European Union of 500 million people sealing the landmark deal.

Prime Minister Charles Michel said the regions and linguistic communities had drafted a four-page addendum to the pact that answered their concerns.

The text addresses fears that a system to protect foreign investors could let multinationals block new rules on the environment, labour rights or public services - specifying that the “investment protection” regime would not come into force during an initial period. It also has a safeguard clause to protect agriculture in the event of a “market imbalance”.

“As a unilateral Belgian declaration, Canada’s approval will not be sought or needed,” a source close to the talks said, indicating the path was now clear to finalise the deal.

European Council President Donald Tusk gave the Belgian agreement to the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) a cautious welcome.

Belgium’s regional governments have until the end of Friday to consult their parliaments if needed, and ambassadors from other EU countries will also review the addendum.

All 28 EU governments back CETA, which supporters say could increase trade by 20 percent, but Belgium’s central government had been prevented from giving its consent because of objections led by the French-speaking Wallonia region.

Wallonia, along with the capital Brussels and Belgium’s groupings of French and German speakers, had opposed the deal for weeks, with fears about a flood of Canadian farm imports one of the main sticking points.

The premier of the Flemish region, Geert Bourgeois, said the original 1,598-page text of the trade deal stood.

“This (the addendum) is a clarification, the actual treaty does not change,” he said.

Minister-President of Wallonia Paul Magnette arrives at a meeting on the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), a planned EU-Canada free trade agreement, at the Lambermont Residence in Brussels, Belgium, October 27, 2016. REUTERS/Yves Herman

Canada has already agreed to a binding declaration to answer concerns raised by others, principally setting out the right of governments to regulate.

“POLITICAL HOSTAGE-TAKING”

Belgium will ask the European Court of Justice whether the investment protection system is in line with EU rules, with Wallonia still expressing reservations. Friends of the Earth described these as potential time bombs under the deal.

EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said the investment protection system did not yet exist and the EU and Canada had time to set up a panel of independent judges to settle disputes.

“We are quite confident that it is perfectly in line with European law,” she told Reuters.

In Ottawa, Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland played down the suggestion that the Belgian addendum could effectively result in parts of CETA being unwound.

“Every trade agreement ... has exit provisions,” she told reporters. “Trade agreements must be structured that way to permit national sovereignty.”

CETA could apply provisionally next year, assuming the European Parliament backs it. Its final implementation could take a few years, after all relevant national or regional parliaments have had their say.

Supporters say the deal will boost the EU economy by 12 billion euros ($13 billion) per year and Canada’s by C$12 billion ($9 billion) at a time of low growth. For Canada, it reduces reliance on the U.S. export market.

German trade groups said the CETA debacle should trigger a revamp of EU procedures.

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“This is not a victory for democracy. It is political hostage-taking,” said BDI business association president Ulrich Grillo.

Failure to agree CETA with such a like-minded country as Canada would have undermined the EU’s ability to forge other deals and damage credibility already battered by Britain’s vote to leave the bloc and disputes over the migration crisis.

“I’m sorry for all other Europeans and our Canadian partners that they had to wait, but what we managed to get here is important not just for Wallonia but for all of Europe,” said Wallonia premier Paul Magnette.</s>“Long live Wallonix,” declared Libération, the French newspaper and standard-bearer for the left, showing its support for the Belgian region of Wallonia, after it stopped Europe from signing a massive trade deal with Canada.



Borrowing from the French cartoon Asterix, Libération depicted Wallonia as plucky Gaul holding out against Pax Canada. Three days after the Libération front page, and following further negotiations, Wallonia’s parliament voted in favour of the trade deal with Canada on Friday. Wallonia’s leader, Paul Magnette, declared that the region had won “a better treaty”.

There are still several more chapters in the stop-start drama over the European Union’s comprehensive economic and trade agreement (Ceta) with Canada. The lifting of the Walloon veto clears the way for 28 EU governments to sign the treaty, allowing it to come into force on a temporary basis.

But 38 national and regional assemblies will have the final say on whether the treaty becomes a permanent legal document. It is a story that is likely to have implications for EU trade policy, but also for post-Brexit Britain.

“This Ceta saga has illustrated an additional layer of complexity that the UK will have to deal with,” said Lourdes Catrain, a partner at law firm Hogan Lovells. 



Wallonia withdrew its opposition to the treaty on Thursday, declaring it had secured important safeguards. “The standards that we have in Ceta will become the norms for all future international trade treaties,” Magnette told Belgian television. He declared that “TTIP is dead”, referring to a parallel trade deal the EU is negotiating with the US.



Not everyone shares his views. Belgium’s prime minister, Charles Michel, said “not a comma had changed” in the 1,598-page trade treaty with Canada.



After days of negotiations, Belgian representatives from the federal government and the country’s five regional parliaments agreed on a four-page text to interpret the treaty. A leaked draft shows what the Belgians agreed: for instance, the trade treaty would not change EU law, which restricts cultivation of most genetically modified crops.

Belgian authorities have pledged to monitor socio-economic and environmental impacts of Ceta. “There are no substantial changes,” said Guillaume van der Loo, a trade expert at the Centre for European Policy Studies, although he did single out one point. Belgium will ask the European court of justice to deliver a verdict on whether a new system of specially created investor courts proposed under Ceta is compatible with EU law.

The fact that senior EU diplomats approved the Belgian text in a hastily convened meeting on Thursday suggests that national governments do not see important changes to a treaty that was seven years in the making.

However, Kathleen van Brempt, a Belgian socialist MEP, argues that the important change is political not technical. “What we might call a small crisis in Belgium relates very much to the way the European Union works and the way we deal with these sort of treaties.” She is convinced that the EU will change how it does trade policy, leading to greater openness and transparency.



In some ways, Ceta was a typical EU story: a tortuous “will they won’t they” wrangle that ends with a feverish round of meetings and a legal document.



It was also a very Belgian story. Magnette and his socialist party are under pressure from the hard-left Maoist-leaning Workers’ party of Belgium that is making inroads into Wallonia, a region of above-average unemployment.

Magnette, supported by centre-right Christian Democrats, has genuine objections to Ceta, says Dave Sinardet, professor at the Free University of Brussels. But his tactics also helped to put Wallonia’s Parti Socialiste back on the map, “certainly among leftwing voters who have felt the PS was too pragmatic, too centrist and not a real leftwing party anymore”.

Meanwhile, according to one EU diplomat, EU leaders meeting at a summit last week expressed frustration that the Belgian prime minister, a liberal, could not do more to fix up a deal with the socialists in Wallonia.

If it had not been Wallonia, it could have been somewhere else. German judges and Austrian MPs have raised concerns about Ceta in recent months; Romania and Bulgaria threatened to veto the treaty to secure visa-free travel to Canada for their citizens. The Dutch government warned on Friday that it may have to veto a trade deal with Ukraine following a referendum that was seen as a vote against Europe, rather than the specifics of the bilateral treaty.



The drawn-out cliffhanger over Ceta and the Dutch problem over Ukraine have prompted recriminations about how the EU manages trade negotiations. Some say the commission blundered by allowing the member states a veto over trade agreements, instead of relying on the older method of a qualified-majority vote.

The commission blames member state governments for not doing enough to sell trade deals to an increasingly sceptical public. Speaking before the Ceta crisis blew up, the EU trade commissioner, Cecilia Malmstrӧm, said countries “are queuing up to negotiate with us”, but were asking questions. “Is it worth it? Is it worth negotiating with an EU that can’t deliver? Member states have to put themselves into that question. Do we want trade agreements or not?”

In a phrase that would be repeated by exasperated EU leaders, she said: “If we fail with Ceta, with Canada, the closest country to us all, the most European, one of the most democratic, least corrupt countries in the world … if we can’t make a trade agreement with Canada, then who can we trade with?”



Brexit Britain is one answer, although probably not the country the commission has in mind, as it pursues trade deals with Japan and the US. The Conservative government wants to secure a trade agreement with the EU as soon as possible.

Liam Fox, the secretary of state for international trade, this week called on the EU to agree a trade deal before the UK leaves the bloc. That would mean negotiating a trade agreement in parallel with the separate article 50 divorce procedure to disentangle the UK from the EU institutions.

Such a rapid timetable leaves legal experts wincing. “Negotiating both the withdrawal agreement and the framework is a herculean task,” said Catrain. “On the withdrawal agreement [alone], even two years is very tight.”



She advises the British government to engage with EU member states and regional parliaments if they want a trade deal.

The British government is wary of parallels with Canada, although a government source acknowledged that Ceta showed “if we do end up in a world of an FTA [free trade agreement] outside the EU it isn’t going to be terribly easy”. But the source rejected “slightly spurious analogies” with Canada. “Far from a free trade deal demolishing existing barriers, as with Canada, [the UK would be] in some ways erecting barriers that used not to be there, so it is a very different process.”

Moreover, any trade deal with the UK would be closely watched by EU governments. During the Canadian negotiations, the commission had free rein to negotiate the fine points on protection of Roquefort cheese or competition for maritime services, with relatively little oversight from governments. Any Brexit trade deal will be political from day one. Each member state will fight for its own interests.

The UK will need to meet the concerns of all EU countries, stresses Van der Loo. “Member states are no longer reluctant to put their foot in the door and stop an agreement in order to gain what they want.”</s>BRUSSELS, Oct 27 (Reuters) – Belgium agreed to a deal with its regional parliaments on Thursday to approve a landmark EU-Canada free trade agreement, breaking a deadlock that has blocked the pact for weeks.

Prime Minister Charles Michel said the heads of the regions had drawn up an addendum to the agreement that answered their concerns over the rights of farmers and governments – an addendum that still needs the approval of Canada and other EU states.

Canada called the announcement a “positive development,” a cautious welcome echoed by European Council President Donald Tusk, who chairs EU leaders’ summits.

But both stopped short of declaring the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), a done deal.

“Only once all procedures are finalised for EU signing CETA, will I contact (Canadian) PM @JustinTrudeau,” Tusk said in a tweet.

All 28 EU governments back CETA, which supporters say could increase trade by 20 percent, but Belgium had been prevented from giving its consent because of objections led by its French-speaking Wallonia region.

Wallonia, along with the capital Brussels and Belgium’s grouping of French speakers, had opposed the deal for weeks, saying it was bad for Europe’s farmers and gave too much power to global corporate interests.

Belgium’s Prime Minister Michel did not give detail on Thursday on how Wallonia’s concerns had been allayed in the addendum. But the premier of the Flemish region, Geert Bourgeois, said the original 1,598-page text of the trade deal stood.

“This is a clarification, the actual treaty does not change,” he said

Failure to strike a deal with such a like-minded country as Canada would have called into question the EU’s ability to forge other deals and damage credibility already battered by Britain’s vote to leave the bloc and disputes over the migration crisis.

Canada’s trade minister Chrystia Freeland, who walked out of talks in Walloon capital Namur last Friday, had asked, if the EU could not do a deal with Canada, who could it do a deal with.

“I’m sorry for all other Europeans and our Canadian partners that they had to wait, but what we managed to get here is important not just for Wallonia but for all of Europe,” said Paul Magnette, Socialist premier of the Walloon region who has led opposition to the deal.

He said the Belgian deal meant the trade agreement would be one that set clear rules on the global economic order.

“We want to regulate the market, we want to protect citizens, for that we fought, and I think it was worth it because we were heard.”</s>Premier of the Belgian region of Wallonia Paul Magnette arrives to attend an emergency meeting of all Belgium federal entities on the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement in Brussels on Wednesday (AFP photo)

BRUSSELS — European leaders voiced hope for a breakthrough Wednesday in troubled negotiations for a landmark EU-Canada free trade deal, despite a word of caution from a Belgian region holding out on key terms.

Canadian and European Union leaders warn that the EU's international standing, already battered by Britain's shock June Brexit vote, will suffer another blow if seven years of trade negotiations go to waste because of internal Belgian politics.

However, EU leaders sounded optimistic that Belgium's federal government would finally win over holdouts in its French-speaking communities and endorse a deal that requires unanimous approval from all 28 EU member states.

Belgium's centre-right federal government as well as its Dutch-speaking and French-speaking community leaders, including those from the southern region of Wallonia, resumed the latest of many rounds of talks in Brussels in a bid to break the deadlock.

"I trust that an agreement will be reached in the course of today with Belgium, Wallonia and other parts of the country," European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker told the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.

But Juncker did not know if the deal would be reached in time to go ahead with a scheduled signing summit on Thursday with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Donald Tusk, the European Council president who would host the summit, told the European Parliament he hoped the agreement would be finalised soon.

"The summit tomorrow is still possible," Tusk added.

Tusk also warned that the EU would undermine its global standing "if we cannot make the case for free trade with a country like Canada, the most European country outside Europe and a close friend and ally".

The European Commission, the EU executive, and the European Council, which groups the member states, are pushing hard for the deal with Canada known as the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA).

The pact would link the EU's single market of 500 million people — the world's biggest — with the 10th largest global economy in what would be the most ambitious such tie-up yet.

Hinging on the outcome are trade negotiations with other countries, including those with the United States which are also in difficulty.

Leaders of Wallonia, a 3.5 million-strong region south of Brussels, want guarantees CETA will not harm local interests.

Critics especially oppose terms of the deal intended to protect international investors which they say could allow them to force governments to change laws against the wishes of the people.

"There remain two important subjects, even if we have advanced on many things," the socialist head of Wallonia's government Paul Magnette told reporters Wednesday, referring to the investment clause and agriculture issues.

Magnette has repeatedly warned that he will break off the talks if he keeps receiving "ultimatums" to strike a quick deal.

If the Belgian talks reach consensus later Wednesday, the documents would have to be sent for review first to the ambassadors of the 28 EU member states and then back to the various layers of government, including the parliament in Wallonia.

CETA has become a lightning rod for growing popular opposition to international trade deals, chief among them the even more controversial EU-US trade deal called TTIP.</s>The parliament of Belgium’s French-speaking region of Wallonia voted in favor of a planned EU-Canada trade agreement on Friday, ending its opposition that threatened to destroy the entire deal.

Lawmakers of Wallonia, which led Belgian opposition to the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), 58 voted for and 5 against, after Belgian politicians agreed to an addendum on Thursday to allay concerns.

The parliaments of Brussels and the French-speaking community will vote later on Friday. Both votes are expected to mirror that of Wallonia, given similar Socialist-led coalitions are in control.

All 28 EU governments back CETA, which supporters say could increase trade by 20 percent, but Belgium’s central government had been prevented from giving its consent because it needed approval from sub-federal authorities.

Wallonia’s Socialist premier Paul Magnette, who had become a hero to protesters across Europe, said Belgian negotiations had led to a deal he could live with.

“The amended and corrected CETA is more just than the old CETA. It offers more guarantees and it is what I will defend,” Magnette told a session.

The Belgian addendum addresses fears that a system to protect foreign investors could strengthen multinationals and provides a safeguard clause for farmers.

“With this saga, which I must say made some noise, everybody in Europe knows the Walloon parliament exists,” he said.

The Belgian dispute over CETA reflects a split in the country between a richer Dutch-speaking north and a largely French-speaking south that has struggled to cope with the decline of its coal and steel industries.

The federal government has just one party from the south, Prime Minister Charles Michel’s MR liberals, the Socialists’ arch-enemies.

But not everyone in Wallonia agreed with Magnette.

“It is clear that the text of CETA stays the same: the DNA of CETA is one of deregulation and it puts nations in competition at an unprecedented level,” said Frederic Gillot of PTB-GO, a hard left party that is winning voters from the Socialists.

European leaders still have to confirm a date for CETA to be signed.

CETA could partially enter force next year, some eight years after talks were launched, as long as the European Parliament also backs it. It would bring in tariff reductions before national and regional parliaments complete ratification.

CETA opposition is part of a growing popular backlash in the West against globalization, with fiercest protests against a proposed EU-U.S. deal, best known by its acronym TTIP.

Protesters say TTIP and CETA would strengthen multinationals and degrade food, environmental and labor standards.

Magnette on Friday said he had no doubt about whether the EU should reach an agreement with the United States.

“With this CETA, TTIP is dead and buried,” Magnette said.</s>A man dressed like a clown with a sticker and a T-shirt reading ‘TTIP game over’ gestures as behind him demonstrators face Belgian police officers during a protest against CETA at European Union Commission headquarters in Brussels on Thursday (AFP photo)

BRUSSELS — Belgium announced a breakthrough on Thursday to save a landmark EU-Canada free trade deal by winning over domestic holdouts who threatened to torpedo the agreement and further damage Europe's international credibility.

News of the intra-Belgian agreement came too late for EU leaders and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to go ahead with a signing ceremony in Brussels on Thursday.

"This is an important agreement that is on the table," Prime Minister Charles Michel told a press conference after marathon talks to win over Belgium's fractious French-speaking communities.

Under complex constitutional arrangements, Michel needed all of Belgium's regional governments to back the deal before he could sign up.

In turn, the accord requires all 28 EU members for approval.

Confirmation of the agreement came swiftly from Paul Magnette, the head of the southern French-speaking Wallonia region who has led objections to the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA).

Canada's Foreign Minister Stephane Dion hailed the move to break the logjam.

"If it materialises, it's excellent news," he said during a visit to Paris, adding he was "cautiously optimistic".

Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, hailed the "good news" as he tweeted that he would contact Trudeau "once all procedures are finalised for EU signing CETA”.

Tusk had hoped until Wednesday morning for a signing summit but it proved impossible as the talks dragged on.

A European source told AFP there was no new date set yet.

The accord must, meanwhile, be vetted by the remaining 27 EU member states and institutions as well as by Wallonia and other regional governments who, Michel said, have pledged to give their answer before midnight (22:00 GMT) Friday.

EU ambassadors reached an informal agreement on the Belgian documents and have asked their capitals to confirm by midnight Friday, according to Belgian, French and Luxembourg officials.

A European source told AFP on condition of anonymity that the summit deadline had been more a "tool" to apply pressure for an agreement than a must-have event.

The stakes have been high as Belgium had become a lighting rod for warnings that the EU's international standing, already battered by Britain's shock June Brexit vote, would suffer further if seven years of trade negotiations were to go to waste.

After hitting deadlock in talks with Walloon leaders last week, an emotional Chrystia Freeland, Canada's trade minister, dismissed Brussels as "incapable" of achieving an international agreement.

Tusk later warned that Europe risked undermining its global standing if it failed to strike a trade deal with as close an ally as Canada.

Hinging on CETA's outcome are complex EU trade negotiations with other countries, including an even bigger and more controversial deal with the United States.

Around 100 demonstrators banging pots protested on Thursday outside the headquarters of the European Commission, the EU executive.

Similar protests are held regularly by opponents of the EU-US talks known as TTIP.

The CETA pact would link the EU's single market of 500 million people — the world's biggest — with Canada's 10th largest global economy in what would be the most ambitious tie-up of its kind so far.

In almost a week of drawn-out talks, leaders of Wallonia, a 3.5 million-strong region south of Brussels, had demanded guarantees that CETA would not harm local farming and other interests.

Magnette particularly opposed terms of the deal intended to protect international investors which critics say could allow them to force governments to change laws against the wishes of the people.

"We have finally found an agreement among the Belgians that will now be submitted to European institutions and our European partners," Magnette said.

"Wallonia is extremely happy that our demands were heard," he added.

With the remaining political hurdles hopefully cleared, Tusk may be free to phone Trudeau on Saturday to discuss the next steps, including possibly a signing ceremony, an EU source told AFP.

Once the treaty is signed, it will be applied provisionally pending ratification by all EU member state parliaments, a process that could take years.</s>BRUSSELS — The Belgian government has reached a deal to back the free trade pact between the European Union and Canada, reviving hope for a precarious agreement that was supposed to be officially signed today with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Trudeau scrapped a trip to Belgium late Wednesday shortly after news that the Belgian government had failed to make decisive headway to lift a crucial veto of the trade deal by the regional government for Wallonia.

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel announced Thursday morning that days of negotiations with Wallonia has resulted in a deal.

He added that the new text provides guarantees for farmers and on a corporate dispute settlement system that will allow Belgium to sign the deal.

EU President Donald Tusk said he would contact Canada’s prime minister “only once all procedures are finalized” for the European Union to sign the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement.

Beyond the Belgian regional parliaments backing the agreement, the adjustments would have to be vetted by the 27 other EU countries. That makes a signing ceremony on Thursday impossible.

Trudeau said Wednesday that Canada was prepared to wait to sign CETA, which took seven years to negotiate.

“We are confident that in the coming days we will see a positive outcome for this historic deal,” Trudeau told Parliament in Ottawa.

Politicians in Wallonia, which has a population of 3.6 million compared with over 500 million for the whole EU, had argued that the proposed accord would undermine labour, environment and consumer standards.

A veto by Wallonia would have prevented Belgium from supporting the Canadian trade deal, which requires unanimous support from the European Union’s 28 member states.</s>Belgian negotiators have reached agreement on a controversial EU-Canada trade deal after talks this morning in Brussels, prompting hope it can be salvaged.

Belgian prime minister Charles Michel tweeted that agreement had been reached shortly after midday by Belgium. “All parliaments are now able to approve by tomorrow at midnight. Important step for EU and Canada.”

But with the remaining 27 member states obliged to endorse the new deal, it is uncertain whether the cancelled EU-Canada summit that had been due to take place on Thursday will still go ahead in the coming days.

Ambassadors representing all 28 member states are meeting Thursday afternoon in Brussels. European Council president Donald Tusk welcomed the development as “good news”, but added that he would only contact Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau “once all procedures are finalised for EU signing CETA [the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement]”.

Following almost two weeks of deliberations, the European Union was forced to cancel a high-profile summit with Canada scheduled for Thursday, after Belgium failed to secure intra-governmental agreement for the deal.

Mr Trudeau’s office confirmed he was cancelling the trip after negotiations in Brussels broke down on Wednesday night, despite signs earlier in the day that a deal was in the offing.

A rescheduled meeting over the weekend is now seen as a possibility, but no further details are expected on the next step forward for CETA until later this afternoon.

Earlier on Wednesday Mr Tusk refused to close the door on an agreement, despite giving the Belgian negotiators a deadline of Monday evening to reach a deal, saying the summit was “still possible”.

“At the end of the day, only the Belgians can decide on Belgium’s position. I am impressed by the determination and engagement they have shown during the last hours,” he told the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

Jean-Claude Juncker, the head of the European Commission, also expressed optimism that an agreement would be reached, allowing the long-planned summit to go ahead.

But following two days of talks in Brussels on Wednesday night, Belgium’s regional governments failed to break the impasse.

Rudy Demotte, the head of the Brussels-Wallonia federation, which represents the French community in the Brussels region, had earlier hinted a deal might not be done. The French-speaking representation in the Brussels region has joined Wallonia in opposing the deal.

Ten days after the Wallonian parliament blocked its progress, the region’s main concerns continue to focus on a controversial investor court which would allow corporates to sue governments, and fears about the impact of CETA on the region’s agricultural, particularly dairy, industry.

Ireland, along with the 26 other member states, have backed the provisional application of the deal which imposes a quota on agricultural products that are imported into the EU.

It is understood that farm organisations such as the IFA were engaged in the negotiations in the early stages of the talks which first commenced in 2009 and are happy with the export opportunities promised by the deal.

The failure of the talks strikes a serious blow at the EU’s credibility as a trade partner. Member states signed off on the deal two years ago following five years of negotiations.

The controversy over CETA has divided Belgium, with the Flemish parliament and federal government backing the deal, with the socialist-led representatives of the French-speaking community opposed.

According to the commission, the trade deal between the EU and Canada would remove 98 per cent of tariffs and also open up the services market between the two blocs, allowing EU firms to compete for Canadian contracts and standardising professional qualifications between the two regions.

But anti-trade campaigners believe the agreement will have a negative effect on environmental and consumer standards.

Fine Gael MEP Seán Kelly called on Belgium to back the deal, noting that CETA would not force the EU to change its existing regulatory framework for GMOs (genetically modified organisms) or the ban on chlorinated chicken within the EU.

But other Irish MEPs, including Sinn Féin’s Matt Carthy, applauded the Walloon parliament. “CETA, like TTIP, is bad deal which would have serious negative implications for Irish farmers, workers and consumers,” he said, referring to the EU-US trade deal known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.

Independent MEP Nessa Childers questioned the need for a special investor court to be included in the scheme, saying that the concept had been invented to safeguard western investors from expropriation when they set up operations overseas in countries with poor governance records.

“Such schemes mushroomed beyond their original purpose and have fed a private arbitration industry . . . Governments ended up sued by big business over matters ranging from cigarette packaging through the discontinuation of nuclear power plants, to the removal of neurotoxins from petrol.”</s>Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is predicting the stalled Canada-European Union trade deal will be wrapped up in the days ahead as efforts in Belgium to break a political deadlock spilled into Thursday – the very date the accord was supposed to be signed.

“We are confident that in the coming days we will see a positive outcome for this historic deal,” Mr. Trudeau told the House of Commons on Wednesday, a bold prediction that suggests the Prime Minister has received assurances that a breakthrough is near by European Union leaders.

The EU requires the assent of all 28 member nations to sign the deal. Politically decentralized Belgium has for weeks been unable to agree to sign the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement with Canada because of opposition chiefly from the French-speaking region of Wallonia, whose regional government has a veto over international accords.

Related: Freeland’s CETA theatrics nothing less than calculated posturing

Related: What’s Wallonia’s deal? A primer on its role in CETA’s crisis

Talks in Brussels that adjourned late Wednesday between the central government and regions are seeking to hammer out conditions under which the regional governments would permit Belgium to green-light CETA.

Canada and the EU had long planned a splashy CETA signing summit on Thursday in Brussels, but International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland acknowledged that meeting was now cancelled.

“The Canadian delegation will not be travelling to Europe [Wednesday night]. Canada remains ready to sign this important agreement when Europe is ready,” a spokesman for Ms. Freeland said in a statement.

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel has been working with the heads of the country’s regions and linguistic communities to produce a document to allay concerns about agricultural imports and a dispute settlement system that critics say could be abused by multinationals to dictate public policy. One European Union diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity said it’s envisioned the text dealing with these concerns would be attached to the deal.

The Canada-EU deal would eliminate duties on tens of thousands of products, covering more than 95 per cent of everything Canada now sells to Europe, and dismantle many non-tariff barriers to commerce. It would give Canada’s auto assemblers and beef and pork producers significant access to EU markets.

Wallonia’s chief problem remains the investor-state dispute settlement mechanism that gives Canadian and European companies a mechanism for suing each other’s governments for decisions that affect their investments.

The Liberal government has said all week that it’s up to Europe to resolve its impasse.

The internal Belgian compromise that is emerging however may not be to Canada’s liking. It outlines Belgian legislators’ refusal to ratify a deal with the existing investor-state dispute settlement provision, one the Trudeau government had already significantly watered down in negotiations.

There are three stages for the EU to approve and pass CETA. The first is for all 28-member countries to agree to sign the deal. Then the agreement would be put before the European Parliament, where it is easily expected to pass.

At that point, an implementation date would be set and the agreement would go into effect on what is called a provisional basis. This would represent the 90 per cent of the deal under the supranational control of the EU itself. It would then be up to each country’s parliament to ratify the accord, and the 10 per cent or so of the deal that is under national purview in each country would come into force only after each member state issued its own approval.

The working Belgian compromise appears to say that Belgium’s legislators would reserve the right at least for a year to reject even the 90 per cent of the deal that would go into effect provisionally after a European Parliament vote. It also confirms that accepting or rejecting the investor dispute court would be up to the 28 national parliamentary bodies of the EU, as part of their ratification vote on the 10 per cent of the deal entirely within each country’s jurisdiction.

It also discusses rules for allowing Belgium to erect protective tariffs or block agriculture imports of a single good if a “market imbalance” arises.

Canadian international trade lawyer Lawrence Herman urged Ottawa Wednesday to remove the investor-state dispute settlement provision from CETA in order to save the accord, saying it’s not a deal-breaker for businesses in Canada.

“There is no concern in the Canadian business community about risks of investing in France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Ireland or the U.K. … There are significant Canadian investments in each of these countries and there’s never been an issue requiring investment protection.”

“CETA is too important for both sides to have it go down in flames over a particular part of the agreement that neither side considers essential,” Mr. Herman said.</s>Carlo Dade is director of the Centre for Trade and Investment Policy. Christopher Rastrick is a policy analyst at the Canada West Foundation.

The dark cloud over our trade deal with the European Union this week came with an overlooked silver lining: Canada had shown it could manage internal opposition to trade agreements.

When negotiations for the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement began seven years ago, the EU expressed worry that our provinces could refuse to go along with the agreement and waste years of negotiations. Similar concerns have been expressed by potential trade partners in Asia.

Fishermen in Newfoundland, environmental activists in British Columbia, and others were opposed to trade talks with the EU. Various groups and politicians opposed the agreement from the start.

Having the provinces integrated into the negotiating process, however, played a constructive role. Provincial governments tend to be seen as closer to the ground and more attuned to the concerns of their citizens. As a result, the text – while still opposed by some – is generally well received here.

Rather than a Canadian province going rogue on the deal, as the EU feared, it was a Belgian subnational government threatening to waste seven years of hard work. Surely, Canadian trade negotiators couldn’t help but feel the pot had called the kettle black.

The CETA ratification process was never supposed to come to this. Partly as a response to the populist pressure spurred by Brexit and partly by increasing concerns over the nature of the EU’s trade relations with third parties (namely, the United States), EU leadership decided that each member state should have an equal say in CETA’s fate. It was just in July that the EU made it a “mixed agreement,” requiring unanimous approval by all 28 member states.

In Belgium, this required three subnational governments to give approval. One of them, Wallonia, balked.

Whatever the ultimate outcome, Canada has gained something. We leave the CETA process looking like a competent, dependable trading partner, a reputation that will pay dividends in the future.

Western Canada in particular is hoping the news about CETA is being translated into Mandarin and Japanese.

Canada has proven it can negotiate with a unified and coherent position internationally, even when faced with concerns from provinces, sectors and advocacy groups. For all the differences among the provinces, especially in relation to the diversity of dominant industries, Canada can produce an agreement, rally domestic voices around it and deliver on its promises.

Further, Canadian trade negotiators have embraced the reality that negotiations between two or more governments involve give and take. Whether the concerns are from powerhouses like Germany or smaller powers like Bulgaria and the Czech Republic, certain concessions had to be made. Of course, when negotiating with the world’s largest trading bloc, there has to be a higher tolerance for what can be sacrificed. In modern trade negotiations, that means working with subnational governments to build support for these bargains up front, rather than at the last minute, as the EU attempted.

With the CETA negotiations forging a Canadian reputation as a dynamic, pragmatic and responsive trading partner, Canada will be well-positioned to bolster its negotiated trade relationships with the Trans-Pacific Partnership member states should that agreement fail, and spur new negotiations with China.

CETA is a good agreement for Canada, made better by the concessions arising from consultations with those most in touch on the ground, namely the provinces. Those who were going to be most affected had their voices heard. Canada has benefited from this consensus approach, and needs to make this the standard for future trade negotiations.

As we enter tough trade negotiations in Asia, what many thought was a weakness in Canada’s negotiating position – provincial participation – turns out to be a strength.
Belgian politicians, including those from the dissident Wallonia region, agree on Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement language that addresses Walloon concerns. This ends the deadlock on CETA, though the revised text must again be approved by the other 27 EU member states.