Questions Linger over Future of EU-Canada Trade Pact, Including Investment Provisions

Over a year after negotiations were concluded for an EU-Canada trade deal, the prospects and timing for ratification remain unclear, despite hopes expressed by officials on both sides in recent weeks that the agreement will receive lawmakers’ approval in 2016. Negotiations for the deal were concluded in September 2014, following over six years of difficult talks between the trading partners. However, some of the pact’s provisions, particularly those relating to investor protections and investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), have proven particularly controversial in the time since, sparking questions over whether a ratification vote will indeed be successful. In recent weeks, EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström has said that the two sides are now working on “fine tuning” the bilateral pact, “including on the sensitive subject of investment.” (See Bridges Weekly, 21 January 2016 ) EU Ambassador to Canada Marie-Anne Coninsx has recently suggested that there might indeed be some legal adjustments to the investment protection part of the pact, while noting that neither side is interested in re-opening the actual trade pact. The envoy indicated that the European Parliament could be presented with the trade deal for a ratification vote later this year, telling the Canadian Press that provisional implementation could...