{"id":89715,"date":"2017-02-15T20:05:13","date_gmt":"2017-02-16T01:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=89715"},"modified":"2017-02-15T20:05:13","modified_gmt":"2017-02-16T01:05:13","slug":"eu-canada-trade-agreement-strong-signal-to-global-partners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/02\/15\/eu-canada-trade-agreement-strong-signal-to-global-partners\/","title":{"rendered":"EU-Canada trade agreement strong signal to global partners"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Bernd<\/a>
Bernd Kolmel, chairman of the European Parliament delegation to Canada, declared in an exclusive interview with Xinhua that a strong message had been sent by the European Parliament’s approval on Wednesday of the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). (Photo by Robin Krahl (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>STRASBOURG\u2014Bernd Kolmel, chairman of the European Parliament delegation to Canada, declared in an exclusive interview with Xinhua that a strong message had been sent by the European Parliament’s approval on Wednesday of the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).<\/p>\n

Asked what message the wide-reaching trade agreement sent to the European Union’s (EU) global partners, the German Member of European Parliament (MEP) was adamant:<\/p>\n

“The signal is clear: The EU and its member states are still able to make comprehensive trade deals; refusing to believe in fake news, misleading claims, and anti-globalization propaganda.”<\/p>\n

Kolmel considered that the outcome, with 408 votes in favor to 254 against, and 33 abstentions, would be good news for both the EU and Canada.<\/p>\n

“CETA will remove tariffs on most goods and services and open up Canada\u00b4s public procurement market,” he explained, “therefore, I expect economic growth both in EU member states and Canada to the benefit of its citizens.”<\/p>\n

Kolmel, also deputy federal chairman of German party the Liberal-Konservative Reformer (Liberal Conservative Reformists), felt that CETA could serve as a “blueprint” for future trade deals with Mexico and the United States, depending on political developments in those countries.<\/p>\n

Asked about the significance of CETA at a time when U.S. President Donald Trump was sparking fears of global protectionism, the MEP said that this was perhaps a step back to European thinkers such Adam Smith, David Ricardo, and Frederic Bastiat, that presented free trade as a way to prosperity.<\/p>\n

“The EP made clear that the majority in the EU has no fear of globalization and knows that trade can benefit both sides,” he asserted.<\/p>\n

“On the other hand, it is clear that every trade agreement has to be concluded to the benefit of the citizens,” Kolmel clarified, before assuring that: “CETA fulfils these requirements. European standards with regard of ecology or consumer protection will not be touched. The creation of an investment court system, which was co-initiated also by myself, ensures the legal certainty for companies, governments and citizens.”<\/p>\n

In the meantime, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) would benefit from the fewer barriers to trade.<\/p>\n

“CETA is about reducing trade barriers. There are tariffs, but also non-tariff barriers to trade,” he explained. “Especially, the non-tariff barriers are rather fixed costs. Thus, diminishing them is a bigger help for companies that export only a smaller amount of products. SMEs clearly benefit.”<\/p>\n

For consumers, the German MEP saw CETA as a means to stimulate more competition, giving them more products to choose from, and probably lower prices.<\/p>\n

“This is a fear, indeed,” he admitted, before asserting that his question to member states who resisted CETA would be: “with whom do you want trade deals, if not with Canada?”<\/p>\n

While waiting for ratification on the national level, however, CETA will receive provisional application as early as April 1, and the majority of its measures will be applied.<\/p>\n

“If you ask CEOs from export-oriented SMEs, you will get unison, the same answer: ‘CETA is good for our business’,” he said. “Therefore, the probability that the exports will rise already this or next year is high.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

STRASBOURG\u2014Bernd Kolmel, chairman of the European Parliament delegation to Canada, declared in an exclusive interview with Xinhua that a strong …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":89718,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[15290,15291,3103],"class_list":["post-89715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-bernd-kolmel","tag-canada-comprehensive-economic-and-trade-agreement","tag-european-union","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}