French Senate rejects EU-Canada free trade deal

The French Senate has rejected by a large majority the trade agreement between the EU and Canada, provisionally in force since 2017, because of its potential impact on French livestock farming, signalling more difficulties for the final ratification of the agreement by the EU.

Unsurprisingly, the bill on the economic and trade aspects of CETA, the trade agreement between Canada and the European Union (EU), was rejected by the Senate on Thursday (21 March), by 211 votes to 255.

The group of Communist senators behind the vote applauded “a great victory” and “all those who reject the logic of free trade treaties that exacerbate competition between peoples”.

Unusually for such an issue, the conservative Les républicains rallied the entire left camp in opposing the deal.

The government accused them of taking advantage of farmers’ discontent and the European election campaign to highlight this sensitive issue.

Since the start of the farmers’ protests in Europe, free trade agreements have been singled out as one of the main culprits, accused of sacrificing European agriculture in favour of industrial products and services.

Yet the agreement was voted through by the French National Assembly in 2019 when President Emmanuel Macron commanded an absolute majority.

Since then, the government has refused to allow the other parliamentary chamber to vote, which is a condition for France to be able to validate the agreement with Brussels.

Although the purely commercial part of the agreement has already been in force since 2017, the EU needs the approval of all 27 member states for the CETA to be fully ratified. So far, 17 EU countries have given their green light, including Germany. France and Cyprus have rejected ratification.

Exchange of “fake news”

During heated exchanges before the vote, the government, represented by the Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade Franck Riester, denounced what it said was the false information peddled by opponents for several days, particularly on the impact of CETA.

The agreement is “good for our economy, our businesses, our agriculture and our strategic relationship with Canada”, the minister insisted.

The proof is in the 33% increase in French exports to Canada in six years across all sectors, from chemicals to cosmetics and steel. The agri-food sector, at the heart of the debate, has seen a threefold increase in exports. Cheese exports have soared by 60%.

Above all, the minister dismissed fears about the risks of importing Canadian beef treated with hormones or antibiotics. This was “false information”, he said, adding that Canada still does not export beef to France.

Senator and farmer Laurent Duplomb (Les Républicains) challenged the government’s narrative, saying that “the figure of a 33% increase in exports is expressed in terms of value [not volume], and more than half of it is artificially inflated by inflation”.

According to the Veblen Institute, which is highly critical of CETA, trade in goods increased by just 0.7% in volume terms between 2017 and 2022.

“All in all, the CETA will bring in 4 dollars per year per European inhabitant in 2035, whereas it will bring in 313 dollars per year per Canadian citizen,” continued Duplomb.

He denounced the “silence of the European Commission”, whose audits in Canada in 2019 and 2022 revealed shortcomings in animal traceability.

While opponents acknowledge that there is no invasion of meat into Europe, this is because Canada has other customers – China in particular – that are currently taking priority. They fear, however, that Canadian producers will sooner or later seek to penetrate the European market.

“The (Canadian) industry is a long way from being able to structure itself to meet European health requirements,” Minister Riester sought to reassure deputies. “Canadians cannot and will not be able to export their hormone-treated beef,” he insisted.

Next steps

The rest is now in the hands of the National Assembly, which has the final say. If the government does not propose a new vote – which is highly likely – a political group can propose a new debate and vote at the National Assembly, and the risk is that the chamber would vote it down.

Manon Aubry, head of the far-left France Insoumise list for the European elections and an opponent of the agreement, was also delighted. “Now we have to go all the way and suspend the treaty”, she posted on X, announcing that she would be calling for a debate on CETA at the next plenary session of the European Parliament.

The result is a setback for Macron’s presidential majority only three months before the European elections.

France is the second country to have rejected ratification. The first, Cyprus, has not notified the EU Commission of its no-vote and continues to apply the treaty pending a new vote.

“When CETA was signed, it was specified that if a Member State were to notify its rejection, the provisional agreement would have to be terminated. The Commission could then ask the Parliament and the Council to vote again”, explains Mathilde Dupré, economist and co-director of the Veblen Institute.

[Edited by Angelo Di Mambro and Zoran Radosavljevic]

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