PM Trudeau: EU Must Spread Benefits or Risk Trade's Decline - Bloomberg

Canada's PM Trudeau was on the wires, via Bloomberg, as he addressed the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, on Thursday after the legislature and Canada’s House of Commons approved the trade agreement, known as CETA.

Key Highlights:

•“This anxiety toward the economy and trade -- the worry that our kids won’t have access to the same jobs and opportunities that we had -- can be addressed only if we ensure that trade is inclusive, so that everyone benefits.”

•“It is much, much easier to point out problems than it is to solve them. It is harder work to build than it is to tear things down.”

•In visiting Trump, Trudeau pressed to maintain the two countries’ $540 billion annual trade relationship. Trump said he planned only “tweaks” for Canada’s terms under NAFTA and was instead targeting Mexico.

•The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement had once been set to pave the way for an EU-U.S. deal but now looks like a rare multilateral success story in a protectionist era. Foreign trade has emerged as a top policy priority for both the Trudeau government and the EU.

•The agreement is due to provisionally come into force in the spring, though Britain’s exit from the EU is also complicating its application.