CETA

The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) was concluded in 2014 between the European Union and Canada. It entered into provisional application in September 2017.

The agreement covers most aspects of new generation trade deals, including intellectual property, public procurements, regulatory cooperation, services and elimination of tariffs.

It also includes an investment chapter with a revised investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism, dubbed investment court system. Many critics on both sides of the Atlantic say that this new system is largely window-dressing and does not address the core of the problem behind investor-state dispute measures which enable foreign corporations to sue states if they deem their profits or investment potentials affected by new laws or changes in policy.

Photo: Council of Canadians

(March 2020)

EurActiv | 24-Apr-2015
Shrouded with secrecy and posing a threat to public services, Owen Tudor tells EurActiv why the UK Trade Union Congress doesn’t believe the hype over TTIP, and why exploitation, rather than immigration, should be the cause of people’s concerns.
EurActiv | 6-Mar-2015
Studies that promote investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) have generated misleading numbers and dubious recommendations. Legislators should approach all studies with caution, warns Gus Van Harten.
Le Monde | 25-Feb-2015
A défaut de l’écarter complètement des négociations du Tafta/TTIP (et de son petit cousin, l’accord CETA entre l’Europe et le Canada), comme le réclame une bonne partie de la société civile, la gauche européenne souhaite réformer en profondeur ce mécanisme d’arbitrage pour limiter ses dérives.
Le Monde | 24-Feb-2015
Rather than abandoning completely the TTIP/TAFTA negotiations (and their little cousin CETA, an agreement between Canada and the EU) which is what a good part of civil society are calling for, the European Left wants to thoroughly reform this arbitral mechanism to limits its abuses.
Counter Punch | 18-Feb-2015
The corporate media would prefer that people know nothing about the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), the US-EU Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and other trade deals.
Stop TTIP | 13-Feb-2015
A report authored by Prof. Dr. Siegfried Broß and recently published by the German Hans Böckler Stiftung concludes that the Investor-State-Dispute Settlement (ISDS) tribunals currently planned to be included in the TTIP and CETA free-trade agreements are not in accordance with Germany’s constitution.
EurActiv | 6-Feb-2015
The French Senate united on Tuesday (3 February) in its opposition to the Investor-State Dispute Settlement mechanism (ISDS).
EurActiv | 5-Feb-2015
En France, UMP et extrême-gauche expriment les mêmes réserves sur les procédures d’arbitrage qu’ils appellent à modifier dans une résolution adoptée à l’unanimité.
EurActiv | 27-Jan-2015
Trade negotiations between the EU and Canada concluded in October 2013, but France and Germany now want to make changes to the CETA agreement’s investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) clause.
EurActiv | 27-Jan-2015
La France et l’Allemagne veulent modifier la clause de règlement des différends entre investisseurs et Etats de l’accord commercial UE-Canada, dont les négociations sont pourtant terminées depuis octobre 2013.