.The Eu is hoping to signing a landmark free trade deal with Canada. European Council President Donald Tusk had given Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel until Monday, three days before the planned signing, to resolve the impasse.Tusk now has to contact Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and call off an EU-Canada summit that was scheduled for Thursday in Brussels, "We cannot give a yes," Paul Magnette, the premier of the Wallonia region, told reporters as he emerged. He said the main problems remained not with Ottawa, which has already agreed to modifications in the deal, but with the EU authorities". We have a Yes from the federal, Flemish and German-speaking communities and it's a No from the others," said Flanders premier Geert. "It's a real shame," the centre-right leader said. "We're the laughing stock of the whole world." Michel said it was too early to say CETA was dead and that the Walloons and he were still open to dialogue but that he must inform Tusk that Belgium was not in a position to consent now to a deal that all 27 other EU member states are ready to support. EU negotiators have stressed that they are willing to keep talking with the Walloons. The issue goes beyond just a trade deal with Canada, the EU's 12th-largest trading partner.If CETA fails, the EU's hopes of completing similar deals with the United States or Japan would be in tatters, undermining a bloc already battered by Britain's vote to leave it and disputes over Europe's migration crisis.
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December 2016
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