European and Canadian civil society organizations call for rejection of CETA / AECG
November 2016
We, the undersigned civil society organizations from Europe and Canada, wish to express our deep concern about the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the European Union and Canada. Throughout the negotiations and the legal verification phase of the text, we have repeatedly denounced the serious problems posed by the text of the agreement.
We put forward concrete proposals aimed at democratizing our trade policies and making them more transparent while refocusing them on environmental protection and the defence of fundamental human rights. But as evidenced by the text of CETA as signed in October 2016, our concerns have gone unheeded, which is why we resolutely oppose its ratification. A growing number of citizens on both sides of the Atlantic share our objections.
A record 3.5 million people across Europe have signed a petition against CETA and its sister agreement, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TAFTA/TTIP) between the European Union and the United States.1
Over 2,100 local and regional governments have declared themselves non-TAFTA / non-TTIP zones. The constitutionality of TAFTA / CETA is being challenged in both Germany and Canada, while the European Court of Justice is likely to consider the legality of the controversial privileges the agreement grants foreign investors.
On both sides of the Atlantic, a wide range of social organizations and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), including trade unions, farmers, environmentalists, consumers, public health, Internet rights and others, oppose the agreement. In October 2016, concerned about the negative impacts of CETA and in particular, the dangers of a “Judicial System on Investment”, four Belgian sub-federal governments came very close to prohibiting the Belgian federal government from signing the agreement.
Read the rest of the letter concerning the rejection of CETA here.
