Prime Minister Trudeau arrives in Belgium to sign free trade deal with EU

BRUSSELS—Justin Trudeau has arrived in Brussels to sign Canada’s free trade deal with the European Union after seven arduous years of negotiation.

The prime minister will be meeting with the presidents of the European Council and European Commission, Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker, as well as with Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard and Martin Schulz, the head of the European Parliament.

The texts of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, known as CETA, along with a side agreement known as the Strategic Partnership Agreement, have been approved and are ready to be signed today.

Trudeau had initially expected to sign the deal in Brussels days ago, but the restive Belgian region of Wallonia nearly killed the deal because of its opposition to the deal’s investor-state dispute settlement mechanism.

The deal’s supporters say it will boost trade by billions through cuts in tariffs across a broad swath of sectors including agriculture, pharmaceuticals and the auto industry.

The prime minister’s flight got off to a bit of a bumpy start, with a mechanical problem forcing it to return to Ottawa about 30 minutes after it took off Saturday night. After a brief period on the ground the flight left again and continued on to Belgium without further incident.