Comprehensive Trade and Economic Agreement

(CETA)

The Comprehensive Trade and Economic Agreement (CETA) is a freshly

negotiated EU-Canada treaty. Once applied, it will offer EU firms more and
better business opportunities in Canada and support jobs in Europe.

CETA will tackle a whole range of issues to make business with Canada
easier. It will remove customs duties, end limitations in access to public
contracts, open-up services' market, offer predictable conditions for
investors and, last but not least, help prevent illegal copying of EU
innovations and traditional products.

The agreement contains also all the guarantees to make sure that the
economic gains do not come on expense of democracy, environment or
consumers' health and safety

EU and WTO

The EU's active involvement in multilateral trade means more products on

sale at competitive prices, more growth and more jobs

By actively promoting a fairer and a more stable international trade system,

the EU strives to:

Ensure new markets for European companies

Observe the rules and make sure others also play by the rules
Create tangible benefits in the everyday life of EU citizens

Through the WTO, the EU also seeks to promote sustainable development in

trade, such as:

The Everything But Arms initiative where all imports from the
world's poorest countries enter the EU free of import duties or quotas,
with the exception of armaments
The special incentive arrangement for sustainable development and
good governance, known as GSP+
 Aid for Trade

EU trade policy and the Doha Development

Agenda
The results of the 9th WTO Ministerial Conference

Ministers agreed at the 9th WTO Ministerial Conference on a series of DDA

issues under three broad pillars: trade facilitation, agriculture and
development, including issues of concern for the Least Developed Countries.
In total 10 decisions and declarations were adopted:

The Trade Facilitation Agreement

The agriculture pillar comprises 4 decisions/declarations covering:
Food Security
General services
Export competition
Tariff Rate Quota (TRQ) administration

The development pillar consists of 5 decisions covering:

Monitoring Mechanism regarding special and differential treatment in
WTO Agreements and Decisions.
Operationalization of the LDC services waiver
Preferential rules of origin
Cotton
Duty-free quota-free

The Bali Ministerial Declaration also foresees the preparation within 12

months (i.e. till the end of 2014) of a clearly defined work programme on
the remaining DDA issues.

The trade facilitation agreement

The main outcome of the 9th WTO Ministerial Conference is the Trade
Facilitation Agreement which, once implemented, will provide significant
benefits to economic operators around the world and will boost global
economic growth.
The agreement aims at making importing and exporting more efficient and
less costly by increasing transparency and improving customs procedures.
Economically, reducing global trade costs by 1% would increase world-wide
income more than USD 40 billion, 65% of which would accrue to developing
countries. It is expected that gains from the Trade Facilitation agreement
would be distributed among all countries and regions, with the biggest
benefits being accrued by developing landlocked countries.

The Trade Facilitation Agreement is meant to be formally adopted by WTO

Members by 31 July 2014. It will then be opened for acceptance until 31 July
2015.

The way forward on the DDA

Following the successful outcome of the 9th WTO Ministerial Conference,

WTO Members are now reflecting on how to move forward on the remaining
issues of the Doha Development Agenda. The results of this reflection will be
mirrored in a work programme that is meant to be agreed by the end of
2014.