EU – Baltic States, Legislation, Markets and Companies

The Foreign Ministry's Parliamentary Secretary Zanda Kalnina-Lukasevica (Unity) points out that the CETA agreement is not only important economically, but also geo-politically, as Canada is an important partner country for Latvia and the EU.

Meanwhile, lawmakers in the small Belgian region of Wallonia on Friday voted to block the EU-Canada trade deal, the AFP news agency reports.

The parliamentary vote by the French-speaking part of southern Belgium threatens to derail the long-delayed signing by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of the pact in Brussels later this month.

46 MPs in the economically depressed area voted in favor of refusing the trade deal and 16 voted against the motion, with one abstention.

Linguistically-divided Belgium's seven different parliaments must first give the federal government power of signature for Belgium to give its official approval, under the country's complex political system.

In order to be signed by Trudeau at the EU-Canada summit on October 27, the deal must first be backed by all 28 EU member states at a ministers' meeting on Tuesday.

CETA is a free trade deal between Canada and the EU's current 28 nations, that was formally concluded in 2014 after five years of talks.

Except for a few sensitive agricultural products, CETA abolishes virtually all tariffs between Canada and the EU. Acquiescing to a European demand, Canada has agreed to substantially open up its public procurement to EU companies, which until now were basically barred from such contracts.

EU trade ministers are set to meet in Luxembourg on Tuesday to give their final greenlight for the deal's signature with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on October 27.

For that, all 28 member states need to hand over their signatory power.