2024-03-22 08:08:35
The coup of the French Senate, which rejected CETA, the free trade agreement signed between the European Union and Canada in 2016, on Thursday March 21, left the Canadian government, officially, unmoved. When asked, the Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, refused to react directly.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs contented itself with a laconic press release, “it is a close bond that unites Canada and France. Businesses and workers in both countries will continue to benefit from the provisional application [du CETA] In France “. A very diplomatic reservation undoubtedly intended not to complicate the task of President Emmanuel Macron, put in difficulty by this vote which, in the long term, makes the final ratification of the said treaty perilous.
The Canadian authorities, like the country’s media, are content, for the moment, to treat this senatorial disavowal from the angle of “French electoral climate”. “Nothing personal” so to speak in the attacks against Canada by opponents of the text. Canadian-European trade would only be the collateral victim of Franco-French partisan debates, maintained by a heterogeneous political coalition ranging from the Communist Party to the French right and fueled by the French agricultural lobby.
“An insult to the truth”
But among those who had the opportunity to follow the debate in the Senate in its entirety, some nevertheless remained ” shocked “. This is the case of Richard Ouellet, specialist in the issues of economic globalization at Laval University in Quebec. “I have heard falsehoods, exaggerations, distortions and caricatureshe protests, this massive rejection [des sénateurs] is an insult to Canada and the truth. » “The figures are cruel, but it is France which is the big winner of this treaty since its application in 2017, he explains. The cheese stalls here are now French, the wines are French, the little cakes are French like the BN [détenus par le groupe alimentaire turc Yildiz holding depuis 2014, mais produits en France] have even made a dazzling breakthrough thanks to CETA! »
Above all, he refutes accusations of distortion of health standards between Canadian and European farms, which would endanger the health of French consumers. “Nothing that is prohibited in France or in Europe, such as animal meal or growth antibiotics for cattle, passes the customs barrier, thanks to the rules set by the agreement”, he assures.
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