IN HAPPIER days for the European Union the arcana of international trade policy were a matter for harmless eccentrics, while the intricacies of Belgium’s constitutional arrangements were reserved strictly for masochists. Not in today’s Europe, where crises strike in the most unexpected places. Behold the fiasco of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with Canada. Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister, had to cancel his visit Brussels on October 27th to sign the trade and investment deal which has been seven years in the making. That is because the Socialist-led parliament of Wallonia, the French-speaking bit of Belgium, blocked it. As The Economist went to press the federal government, which needs the regions’ support to approve the deal, had failed to win the Walloons around. Thus did a regional parliament representing 3.6m people thwart the will of governments representing 545m.
The debacle has many fathers. Wallonia’s Socialists, out of national office for the first time in decades, are troubled by fringe leftists and keen for attention. The Flemish, their richer (and more trade-friendly) partners in...Continue reading
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