Canada and the EU added a climate clause to their trade deal at a high-level meeting in Montreal last Wednesday.
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As EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström visited Canadian Minister of International Trade Diversification 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 Donald Trump’s isolation on trade and climate change.
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 U.S., 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 U.S. 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.
