Canada and the EU added a climate clause to their trade deal at a high-level meeting in Montreal on Wednesday.
As EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malmström visited Canadian minister Jim Carr, they adopted an update to the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (Ceta), which entered into force last year.
The two economies agreed to “promote the mutual supportiveness of trade and climate policies”, with reference to their commitment to the Paris Agreement.
The statement fleshed out Ceta’s provisions for environmental cooperation and underscored US president Donald Trump’s isolation on trade and climate change.
After #ParisAgreement was first mentioned in EU/Japan EPA, #CETA is now following: #Canada/#EU commit to PA & mutual support of trade/climate policies.
However, effectiveness & enforceability of such announcements in trade agreements still not clarified. https://t.co/G6Y2Milw0I pic.twitter.com/pIm90Imjjw— Felix Schenuit (@FelixSchenuit) September 27, 2018
It came shortly after French president Emmanuel Macron told the UN countries rejecting the Paris pact should not benefit from economy-wide commercial deals.
Asked by Bloomberg if that ruled out a trade pact with Trump’s US, Macron said: “With America disrespecting the Paris Agreement, for sure, I could not accept…
“We are asking a lot of efforts [from] our farmers, our industrials, our citizens precisely to make such a shift [to a low carbon economy]. If you opened your market to products and goods coming from a country that decided not to accept the same rules and constraints, it would be totally crazy.”
Trump has declared his intention to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement and started dismantling policies to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
At the same time, he has pursued protectionist trade policies, using his speech at the UN general assembly this week to denounce “globalism”.
Malmström has said any new trade deal must mention the Paris pact, although commission president Jean-Claude Juncker took a softer stance on a visit to Washington DC in July.
What happens in the next few months will impact the future of the Paris Agreement and the global climate
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