Canada-EU failure signals more bad news for free trade deals

"People are blaming it all on immigrants or goods coming into the country,” she told AFP."

No they aren't. They're blaming it on certain immigration policies, which were created by powerful and privileged people like herself.

This calculated conflation - which our leaders commit time and time again - is divisive and dangerous and explains why lots of people are turning to populism.

The elite needs to explain why the spread of globalism and free trade and coincided with low GDP and income growth and extreme inequality in developed countries. Pointing fingers at those calling for immigration and trade policy reform is just plain sleazy.

Maybe the attitude of Canada's trade minister didn't help. When I have seen her on TV she thinks the EU and Europe are the same thing. I really stupid mistake one in her position shouldn't be making.

This is what is wrong with Europe - it's not democratic when a sole region the size of a small county can scupper a deal.

Reform or die.

One of the problems with free trade deals, and reporting of trade in general, is the way things are calculated. One millionaire business owner can profit $100,000, and 18 families can lose $5,000 income a year, and that's seen as a net gain for the country of $10,000, despite there being 1 winner and 18 losers. Magnify this across a nation's populace, and a lot of people get burnt and disfranchised. They're told that it's good for the country, but all they see is job loses and 20 years of stagnant wages.

Add the lack of transparency, the ability for private companies to sue governments for anything they enact that may affect company profits, and the way it seems some of the biggest businesses pay little to no tax while the rest of us have to carry that burden... no wonder popularism is becoming so popular. No wonder people will support an "outside", even if you know they'll be an absolute disaster, over the status quo, because the status quo is seeming just as much a disaster, just one that's taking its time to play out.

Interesting. So a little assembly in Wallonia can hold up an entire trade deal with Canada. Yet the people in charge of Brexit in the UK continue to cling to the illusion that negotiating a trade deal will be a breeze, even though every country in the EU has a reason to do what Wallonia is doing to Canada.

To Jeff Lee and others

Thank you for a well considered comments.

Any trade deal that can result in changes to the citizenry of a country needs to be accepted or rejected by the citizens. Any purposed plan needs to be voted on. This is the only way! Present two or three proposals on a ballot and let the people decide.

@JeffLee, Ms. Steger is a former WTO negotiator and current economics professor, NOT one of the 'powerful and privileged people' as you speciously label her. @notagain, Canada's trade minister is a very accomplished person with a lot of experience in European trade matters. Believe it or not, the EU IS EUROPE (without the UK, of course), and was a disaster in the making when it was conceived. That fact has now been proven twice in the last year. "Fool me once, shame on me, fool me twice, shame on you." But that's just this Canadian's point of view.

The EU is NOT Europe, they are two different things. There are European countries that are not or have never been part of the EU or it's predecessors. Thinking the terms Europe and the European Union are interchangeable is ignorant, akin to those who think England and the UK are the same thing.

the people who have been screwed by the very people they placed their trust in,the loss of jobs in "developing countries" or Tax havens for some doesnt really matter to people when their own jobs are on the line.

Also Canada doesnt have anything Europe want so tough luck for Canada and America you will have to pay your taxes if you want to do business in Europe their is a reason we are the biggest domestic market in the word and we did not get that by selling out our own people.

It has always amazed me how so many people, especially people on the American left, look to Europe as some kind of paragon of progressive thinking, social justice and regional unity.

After all, this is the same place that in the last 500 years, or so, conquered and colonized any place or people that had assets to steal and the inability to resist, gave us all the wonders of WWI and WWII, committed wholesale genocide a number of different times and created the blueprint for the current problems in the Middle East.

Europeans have been at each other throats for centuries and altho they have recently tried to convince themselves and the world community that they have changed; looking at it from the outside it’s obvious that the “European-ism” that has been the root of so much trouble around the world is still there, simmering just under the facade.

The EU’s days are numbered so it would probably be wiser to wait in regards to any long term agreements with them.

We know how the EU Commission works. They'll conveniently 'misplace' Wallanoia's bank account number until the issue is resolved in their favor - maybe take a closer look at those CAP beneficiaries too, or a nice antitrust investigation. Worked with Greece.

Europe their is a reason we are the biggest domestic market in the word and we did not get that by selling out our own people.

Greece, Portugal, Spain, Ireland, Cyprus - which people got sold for bailouts

Greece, Portugal, Spain, Ireland, Cyprus - which people got sold for bailouts

If you spend money you dont have your gonna be in debt