EU and trade policy-making: the contentious case of CETA

Abstract

The final version of the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) between the European Union (EU) and Canada represents the archetype for new trade regimes. Ratification, however, has become an increasingly contentious issue for the EU. We argue that while CETA was pushed by a coalition of sectoral actors, the support for such an agreement increasingly dwindled. This is due to a vehement anti-FTA sentiment across the EU, propagated by the onset of Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations. We state as paradox that the Commission insisted to include the Canadian provinces in order to secure the operation of an agreement and at the same time neglected its own weak political power to settle the agreement. CETA came into being but may not become the comprehensive agreement as it was being negotiated as the investment chapter may run into ratification problems by a small number of member states.