The Belgian state of Wallonia has reached agreement with the Belgian government and now looks likely that it will approve the Belgian governments sign off on the Canada EU Trade Agreement called CETA.
The agreement which was due to be signed off at a summit on 27th October by the Prime Minister of Canada and the head of the EU was held up after Wallonia said that it would not allow the Belgian government to sign off on the agreement.
The agreement took over 7 years to negotiate and Wallonia’s, a French speaking state with only a population of 3.5 million, refusal to sign late last week caused anger among Canadian and European leaders.
The ambitious CETA pact would link the EU’s single market of 500 million people, which is the worlds biggest – with Canada which is the tenth largest global economy.
There was no immediate announcement of a new date for signing the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA).