ABSTRACT
Canada and the European Union are moving swiftly to complete an ambitious Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) by the end of 2011. It is the second attempt at a trans-Atlantic deal after the 2004 Trade and Investment Enhancement Agreement with Brussels fell off the table two years later. The Canadian government predicts the CETA would increase exports in goods and services to the EU by $12.6 billion (20.6 per cent), and total bilateral trade in goods could go up $38 billion (22.9 per cent) by 2014. 2 If successful, the next generation trade pact would be the first between Europe and another G8 country. It is facilitated by continued deadlock at the WTO and a competitive drive among developed and emerging economies to sign new bilateral agreements in the absence of a viable multilateral alternative. In Canada, renewed fears of being too dependent on NAFTA, and the active support of the provinces, which have jurisdiction in areas important to the EU, such as procurement and domestic regulation, has lured new political players in Ottawa and Brussels back to the table. The principal hypothesis of this chapter, however, is that Canadian negotiators have learned little from past experience. Despite a vast academic industry analyzing the shortcomings and strengths in Canada with respect to the EU, all commentators underscore the problem of asymmetry. In the present circumstances the government has ignored this basic warning.
