Canadian, EU Ministers Promote CETA Deal as 'Isolation' is Not 'Right Choice'

Canadian Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland and her EU counterpart Cecilia Malmstrom urged EU nations on Sunday to avoid economic isolation, in a new push to promote the CETA trade deal.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Brussels and Ottawa hope that the arrangement, which seeks to lower trade barriers and create more jobs, will be signed this fall and implemented in early 2017.

"We believe the right choice is for partnership and prosperity, not division and isolation, now more than ever. Now is the time to build bridges, not walls," the ministers said in a statement.

Freeland will attend a meeting of 28 EU trade ministers in Slovakia’s Bratislava next Thursday to discuss the so-called Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement.

Fears remain that the transatlantic trade deal will water down EU standards on environment, health and food safety. In a bid to allay these concerns, the Canadian and EU trade chiefs said it would allow continued improvement by the parties.