2024-03-21 16:36:59
The threat was looming, it was carried out. Against the backdrop of the European campaign and the agricultural crisis, the Senate voted against the validation of the “Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement”, better known by its acronym, Ceta, free trade treaty between France and Canada, this Thursday.
Signed in 2016, adopted in 2017 at the European level, Ceta was narrowly validated in the National Assembly in 2019. But the government never referred it to the Senate, a necessary step in the process.
But, extremely rare in Parliament, the communist senators included in their reserved parliamentary time not one of their legislative proposals, but a government bill authorizing the latter to ratify this famous Ceta. “Since 2019, the government has continued its denial of democracy by refusing to include it here,” said communist Fabien Gay.
After its rejection by the senators, the communist deputies announced on Thursday their intention to include the Ceta treaty on the agenda of the National Assembly on May 30, during their reserved day in the hemicycle. The Senate vote “cannot remain a dead letter,” they said in a press release. “The confirmation by the National Assembly of the rejection of Ceta will make it possible to put an end to its application,” they judged.
The government, through Franck Riester, for its part regretted this vote. “I regret the political and electoral motivations of this vote, in the middle of the European campaign, to the detriment of our economy and our agriculture,” lamented the Minister Delegate in charge of Foreign Trade on X.
” Good news “
This rejection is “good news”, reacted the president of the National Bovine Federation (FNB). “There is good news from time to time,” rejoiced Patrick Bénézit, also second vice-president of the majority agricultural union FNSEA, believing that the senators have “finally had the opportunity to make the right choice, that of not not ratify a treaty which authorizes foodstuffs which do not respect our production conditions.
Ceta, which notably eliminates customs duties on 98% of products traded between the European Union and Canada, is strongly criticized, in particular by French breeders who report meat imports at cost prices much lower than theirs and with less strict methods than those to which they are subject.
“We say stop the unfair competition that we are subjecting to European producers by imposing ever more draconian standards, while turning a blind eye to imported products,” thundered farmer senator LR Laurent Duplomb.
1711039019
#Ceta #senators #vote #free #trade #treaty #text #Assembly