Done Deal: Belgium Signed CETA with Addendum

October 29th, 2016

Awake Goy

nsnbc : Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Didier Reynders signed the CETA free trade agreement between Canada and the EU ending the hiatus that prevented the ratification of the EU – Canadian agreement. Resistance from Belgium’s Wallonia region ceased after a compromise was reached, resulting in an addendum that bars “private” courts of arbitration, and other CETA provisions – at least for some time.

The agreement was signed in the Belgian capital Brussels in the presence of EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malström, EU Commission Chief Negotiator Mauro Petriccione, Canadian Ambassador Olivier Nicoloffm the President of the CanCham BeLux, Jean-Pierre Tanghe.

On Friday the Walloon regional parliament approved the CETA after intense negotiations resulted in the adoption of an addendum that would exempt Belgium from the implementation of some of the most controversial aspects of the free trade agreement. The Prime Minister of Wallonia, Paul Magnette, ultimately accepted that he would submit the “unchanged” CETA deal plus the addendum to the Walloon parliament.

The CETA & addendum came with a new deadline that expired on Friday at midnight, leaving little time for clarifications, legal studies and analysis, reflection or debate. Magnette would also describe the addendum as “clarifications”, which may be a suitable designation considering that nsnbc asked several experts in international and trade law who concurred that it was highly questionable whether or not the addendum was legally binding. Yesterday Flemish Prime Minister Bourgeois frankly said that:

“Not one word of the treaty had been changed but that the European Commission has provided a number of clarifications with regard to the Walloon concerns about the arbitration courts and safeguards for farmers”

In terms of Realpolitik the development implies that Wallonia and with it Belgium adopted the entire CETA package, hook, line and sinker, in exchange for having “an addendum” added. While this addendum is being promoted as “legally binding”, nsnbc’s consultations with experts in international trade law Friday morning resulted in concurrent and consistent comments; “The legal status of such an addendum is highly questionable, to say the least”.

The addendum allegedly guarantees that no private arbitration courts will be established. However, nsnbc international received information from a Walloon MP who commented on condition of anonymity, stressing that this provision would in fact be timely limited and that these private “courts” would be introduced anyway, just with a delay when the public has lost interest in the subject.

Flemish Socialists “praised” Walloon Prime Minister Paul Magnette and expressed admiration for his “determination” not to give in the CETA talks. Dirk Vandermaelen said that Mr Magnette had ensured that there had been a sea change in the way free trade accords are discussed:

“It used to be possible to steer accords like this through parliament without any criticism. This is no longer possible. …At long last we’re going to discuss how we organise globalisation. The victims of globalisation are at the bottom of the ladder.”

However, Vandermaelen also suggested that Brexit supporters in the UK and the far right in France and Germany had played on the unrest caused by free trade deals like CETA; It is a standard strategy used by conservative and socialist EU-proponents alike to denounce EU-skeptics as “far-right” akin to nazis or racists.

Glancing behind the veil of what some critics would denounce as Vandermaelen’s weasel words one might discover that the adoption of the CETA will indeed set a precedent in “organizing globalization”, with or without the Belgian “addendum”, and yes, the victims of globalization are always at the bottom of the ladder and CETA institutionalizes globalization.

A Canadian-European summit will be held in Brussels tomorrow where the EU and Canada are expected to pen the agreement. After that the European Parliament is scheduled to vote on the CETA. Another alarming signal concerning the lack of democracy, national sovereignty and transparency in the EU is that the CETA, if approved by the EU parliament, can be rapidly implemented, even though the parliaments of the 28 EU member States still have to vote on whether or not they approve the CETA.

F/AK – nsnbc 29.10.2016

Source Article from http://nsnbc.me/2016/10/29/done-deal-belgium-signed-ceta-with-addendum/