The European Council is due to begin a two-day leaders’ meeting on Thursday, where they are expected to confirm whether they are in a position to sign a negotiated trade deal with Canada. The gathering is being pegged as a pivotal moment for the future credibility of the EU’s foreign trade policy and watched as a litmus test for global economic integration more broadly. The news followed a flurry of activity in Luxembourg earlier in the week, as EU trade officials worked to reach a compromise that would allow all 28 member states to approve signing the accord, which ultimately proved elusive. The EU and Canada concluded negotiations for the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), as the accord is known, in 2014. They subsequently revised the accord earlier this year to reflect some changes in the pact’s investor protections. However, winning over support at the member state level has proven extremely difficult, given the anti-globalisation rhetoric that has become prominent over the last year, together with concerns over substantive aspects of the final deal. Luxembourg talks EU trade ministers met in Luxembourg on Tuesday 18 October, in an extraordinary meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council set up for taking...