Canada Still Hopeful For Trade Deal With EU: Minister

OTTAWA, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News -24th oct,2016) : Canadian Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland said Monday she remains hopeful that a landmark Canada-EU trade deal will be signed despite pushback from a region of Belgium.

"CETA is not dead," Freeland said after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke by telephone with European Council President Donald Tusk. Trudeau is still planning to fly to Brussels on Thursday to sign the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement, according to a spokesman.

In a statement, the prime minister said: "The EU and its member states should continue to work towards the summit on Thursday where the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement will be signed." Freeland, who walked out of emergency talks to try to salvage the deal after seven years of negotiations, commented: "Canada is ready to sign CETA, but the ball is in Europe's court and it's time for Europe to do its job.

" "We wish them well and hope they can get there," she said, adding that "this deal is done.

It's time to move on, get it signed, and then get it ratified." Leaders of Wallonia, a 3.5 million-strong French-speaking region of Belgium, have prevented Belgium from supporting the pact, effectively putting the brakes on EU plans to ratify it.

Fearing a flood of agricultural imports, they want more talks to produce iron-clad reassurances that CETA will not harm local interests. They have also criticized the terms of the deal intended to protect international investors which, they say, could allow them to force governments to change laws against the wishes of the people.

The European Commission said earlier there was still time to conclude the agreement despite fears in some quarters it was now close to collapse.