As Canada’s free-trade deal with Europe runs up against political opposition in France, French President Emmanuel Macron defended it Thursday at an appearance in Montreal.
“It is a very good agreement,” Macron told reporters in French, during a joint press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. “I am confident there will be a path forward for its definitive adoption in France.”
Negotiations for the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) finished in 2014 and was signed in 2017, but the deal is only provisional, pending the ratification of all 27 EU member states.
However, CETA was overwhelmingly voted down by France’s senate in March, as the deal faced opposition from French farmers.
The French senate’s failure to ratify CETA means that the Canada-EU trade agreement is likely headed to a more high-stakes vote in France’s national assembly. If CETA is defeated there, France could then notify EU officials in Brussels of its failure to ratify the deal.
If and when France serves such notice to the EU, it will immediately terminate the provisional trade concessions it obtained upon signing CETA in 2017.
French farmers have rallied against CETA for years, framing the deal as a threat to their agrarian way of life. French agricultural exports to Canada nevertheless increased by 33 per cent between 2017 and 2023, according to data published by the French foreign ministry.
Macron made note of this incongruity in his remarks on Thursday.
“The reality is that CETA is a good agreement for the French agricultural sector,” Macron told reporters.
Some European critics of the agreement have stoked fears about the quality of Canadian meat exports entering the French market under CETA.
“CETA means beef will be hormone-treated meat will contain antibiotics for growth,” warned one prominent left-wing politician heading into June’s European parliamentary elections.
Dan LeRoy, a professor of agricultural economics at the University of Lethbridge said that the French debate over Canadian beef is “pure theatre.”
LeRoy noted that Canadian producers of beef and veal exported just eight tonnes of product to France in the first seven months of 2024, versus over 200,000 tonnes to the United States over the same period.
“Canada and France are not in the top dozen of each other’s (beef and veal) export markets,” LeRoy said.
National Post
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