Trudeau to meet Merkel, EU to discuss controversial trade deal

Source: The Local

Trudeau to meet Merkel, EU to discuss controversial trade deal
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Photo: AP/dpa
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is heading to Europe next week to about the controversial CETA trade deal.

Trudeau will speak on February 16 before the European Parliament in Strasbourg to urge members to ratify a sweeping trade deal between the two sides.

He will then travel to Berlin, for talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and to Hamburg, to take part in an annual banquet.

Trudeau, who will be the first sitting Canadian leader to address the European Parliament, will be vaunting a long-in-the-making deal known as the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).

The deal also requires ratification by EU member states, which could take years. It would eliminate 98 percent of tariffs between the two sides.

The visit comes at a particularly sensitive time for trade talks, with Britain poised to leave the European Union, new US President Donald Trump rejecting an Asia-Pacific trade deal and demanding renegotiation of a North American trade pact, and globalization seemingly out of favor with many Western publics.

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Categories: Americas, Canada

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