Past Event

For registration, please contact the Centre for European Studies.

* refresments will be available starting at 3:15pm     CETA Poster

Why are Canada and the EU having such trouble closing the deal on a Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA), which they have been negotiating since 2009? This agreement would have a broader scope than any of Canada’s existing free trade agreements, including NAFTA. It has been suggested that 90 to 95 per cent of issues involved in the CETA have been addressed and agreed to in principle, but sticking points remain. Some of the likely contentious areas may be access to agricultural markets, patent protections on pharmaceuticals and government procurement.

Canadian government spokespersons continue to downplay any sense of urgency, but the initiation of negotiations between the US and EU to conclude their own Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) may upstage the Canada-EU agreement. The US -EU economic relationship is ten times larger than Canada’s relationship with the EU.

Bringing European and Canadian perspectives to bear, the roundtable speakers will discuss current obstacles to reaching an agreement on CETA, and whether and how these obstacles can be overcome. In addition, speakers will discuss the potential economic and political consequences for both Canada and the EU if negotiations are not successfully concluded.

CETA Roundtable Discussants

Louis Bélanger, Université Laval is a professor of International Relations in the Department of Political Science at Université Laval, Quebec City, and the Director of the Institute for Advanced International Studies (HEI). He is the author of numerous publications on regional integration, free trade, Canadian foreign policy, inter-American cooperation, and the politics of secession.

Robert Finbow, isProfessor and Chair, Dept. of Political Science at Dalhousie University. His current research focuses on labour and social issues in NAFTA and the EU and comparative regional development and federalism in North America

Karel Lannoo, Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) is the Chief Executive and Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels.  He is an advisor to the Canada-Europe Roundtable for Business and has written numerous publications from a transatlantic perspective on the EU and US legislative response to the financial crisis.

Crina Viju, Carleton University is an Assistant Professor at the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies at Carleton University. Her research interests include the economic effects of different trade policies applied within the EU, Canada and the US, European economic integration and EU enlargement.

Moderated by: Chris Waddell, Director of Carleton’s School of Journalism and Communication

This event is co-organized by the Centre for European Studies (EU Centre of Excellence) and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, with support from the Canada-Europe Transatlantic Dialogue (CETD) and Carleton University.

The event is supported, in part, by a grant from the European Union