Četa

Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement

Canada (orange) and the European Union (green)
Type	Trade agreement
Signed	30 October 2016
Effective	Not in force
Negotiators	Canada  European Union and its 28 member states
Ratifiers	5 (ratified by EU parliament and 4 of 28 EU members)
Languages	All official EU/Canadian languages Bulgarian Croatian Czech Danish Dutch English Estonian Finnish French German Greek Hungarian Irish Italian Latvian Lithuanian Maltese Polish Portuguese Romanian Slovak Slovene Spanish Swedish

The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) is a free-trade agreement between Canada and the European Union. If enacted, the agreement will eliminate 98% of the tariffs between Canada and the EU.

The negotiations were concluded in August 2014. All 28 European Union member states approved the final text of CETA for signature, with Belgium being the final country to give its approval.Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, traveled to Brussels on 30 October 2016 to sign on behalf of Canada. The European Parliament approved the deal on 15 February 2017. The remaining parts of the agreement are subject to ratification by national legislatures.

The European Commission indicates the treaty will lead to savings of just over half a billion euros in taxes for EU exporters every year, mutual recognition in regulated professions such as architects, accountants and engineers, and easier transfers of company staff and other professionals between the EU and Canada. The European Commission claims CETA will create a more level playing field between Canada and the EU on intellectual property rights. A poll conducted by Angus Reid Institute in February 2017 concluded that 55 per cent of Canadians support CETA, while only 10 per cent oppose it. The support, however, has waned when comparing to the poll conducted in 2014. In contrast, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has a 44 per cent support rate among Canadians in February 2017.

Critics oppose the treaty on the grounds that it will weaken European consumer rights, including those concerning food safety, and that tariffs are already very low. It has also been criticized as a boon only for big business and multinational corporations, while risking net-losses, unemployment, and environmental damage impacting individual citizens. The deal also includes a controversial investor-state dispute settlement mechanism. In contrast to its popularity among Canadians, the agreement has prompted protests in a number of European countries.