November 23 2016
CETA has been signed. Now, what are the next steps? Which challenges are awaiting for its ratification and implementation and what conclusions can be drawn for ongoing and future EU FTAs?
The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) was finally signed on October 30th after more than a week of intense last minute negotiations with the Wallonian government which had threatened to veto the agreement. With the agreement being signed the question is now what are the next steps? What are the challenges ahead for the ratification and implementation process and do we have to expect other throwbacks? More broadly, what are the conclusions that can be drawn from the difficulties to conclude CETA for EU trade policy in general? Is the EU still a reliable negotiation partner and how can we avoid in the future that FTA negotiations are blocked at the very last minute?
The seminar will be co-hosted by the Canada Europe Roundtable for Business (CERT) and ECIPE.
Programme
REGISTERProgramme:
15:00 Welcome by Erik van der Marel, Senior Economist at ECIPE
15:05 Panel Discussion
Marco Bronckers, Professor at University of Leiden
Fredrik Erixon, Director of ECIPE
Jason Langrish, Executive Director at CERT
Renita Bhaskar, Deputy Head of Unit E1-Trade Relations with the United States and Canada, DG Trade
Q&A
16:30 End