Senators vote Thursday on the final ratification of the free trade agreement. The outcome of the vote is very uncertain, the text has become a transpartisan electoral issue three months before the European elections.
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A reminder is necessary to have in mind what this agreement represents, which is supposed to promote trade between the 27 countries of the European Union and Canada. CETA was adopted in 2017 and has since been applied provisionally pending votes from national parliaments. If the National Assembly approved it in 2019 by a small majority, the Senate still does not. The senators must vote on the text on Thursday March 21, the communists taking advantage of their parliamentary niche to impose it on the debate. It is impossible to predict the outcome of the vote, what is certain is that the government fears an alliance between part of the right, the majority in the Upper Assembly, and the left fiercely hostile to this text.
An alliance between communists and republicans is not impossible. It would represent a baroque team, but a team of circumstances. CETA has become a transpartisan electoral issue three months before the European elections. The agricultural crisis is far from over. For the left as for certain Republicans, this agreement endangers our agriculture because of unequal health standards. Both camps want to embody the anger of farmers and take advantage of it at the polls next June. The government assures us that this agreement is good for our economy. For dairy products, for example, exports to Canada jumped by 60%, according to the Ministry of Foreign Trade. Not all sectors, wine growers in the lead, are opposed to it.
Applied provisionally… for seven years!
If CETA is rejected, the text will have to return to the National Assembly and there, the majority being relative, it could also fall. We understand better the excitement of the government. But, beyond this political dispute, whether we are for or against this agreement, there is still a democratic problem. How can a text that has not been voted on be applied? Provisionally, it was said in Brussels at the time while awaiting the expression of national parliamentarians. A transitional state which has lasted for 7 years! If it is ever rejected in France, the government will still have one option: not to officially transmit the result of the vote to Brussels. This is what Cyprus did. A democratic denial which only results in strengthening populism of all kinds and further distracting citizens from their leaders.
