Tajani sees the Canadian Foreign Minister. Ceta dossier and EU agreement on the table

The 'stone guest' of the meeting expected in these hours at the Farnesina between the Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Tajani and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada Anita Anand is Ceta, and its bumpy ride. It is the free trade agreement between the EU and Canada elevated by Brussels to a 'gold standard', the flagship of barrier-free trade.

Instead, its history took a different turn: in the autumn of 2016, at the last mile, Wallonia's stop blew up the signature, forcing the then President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, to acknowledge that even a small local Parliament can stop Europe. The text nevertheless entered provisional application in 2017, without however ever becoming fully operational: ten national parliaments - including Italia - did not complete ratification, under pressure from an agricultural world uneasy - yesterday as today - about the risk of dumping on exports, the environment and health.

Last year, at a summit with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had highlighted the results of this agreement. Between the EU and Canada, she had said on that occasion, '98% of our tariffs are zero. I repeat: zero. There has been a 17% increase in trade since 2017. In 2023 alone, total trade has reached the remarkable figure of EUR 123 billion. And thanks to Ceta, the EU's GDP grows by EUR 3.2 billion, while Canada's grows by EUR 1.3 billion every year. So,' von der Leyen concluded, 'Ceta is a strong symbol of the power of free and fair trade.

Since 2016, the year preceding the provisional entry into force of the Ceta trade agreement, trade in goods and services between the EU and Canada has taken off, leaping 71%. This was revealed by an independent study commissioned by the European Commission, published at the time, which highlighted the economic and social benefits of the agreement. The interchange," the report relaunched by Brussels read, "has gone from EUR 72.2 billion in 2016 to EUR 123 billion in 2023. European exports to Canada increased by 64% for goods and 81% for services, with EU GDP benefiting from an annual increase of EUR 3.2 billion, directly attributed to the effects of the agreement. The real protagonists of Ceta were SMEs, with a 20.3% increase in the number of companies exporting to Canada, higher than the growth recorded among large companies (+13.8%). The treaty, it was further highlighted, has also strengthened cooperation on critical raw materials - improving security of supply - and facilitated EU companies' access to Canadian public procurement, with an 8.4% increase in the value of contracts awarded. Trade related to sustainability is also booming: +12% for environmental goods and +46% for green services.