Limits and Opportunities for the Development of Trade and Economic Relations between the EU and Canada in the Context of CETA

An agreement between the EU and Canada on the creation of a free trade zone was signed on October 30, 2016 at the EU-Canada summit in Brussels. The provisions of the agreement affect trade in goods, services, investments, public procurement, environmental issues and labor standards, state-owned enterprises, electronic commerce, and sustainable development. Canada and the European Union are natural partners. But for the European Union, the current conclusion of a transatlantic deal is of particular importance. As well as it is vital for Canada itself. In these circumstances, signing of the most significant document with a major external partner, such as Canada, confirms that the EU is able to pursue an effective common trade policy, thus confirming its position and its role as a single unit in the global economy and the world community. At the same time, Canada has its own interest in signing such an agreement and follows its own economic and politic strategy which had been transformed after the several failures. This paper analyses the limits and future opportunities of the consequences in the EU-Canada trade and economic relations appeared from the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement. In this study we aim to describe the main idea of the CETA, underline the main special features of the economic and trade relations between Canada and EU, eliminate the evolution of the foreign economic partnership between both countries in the historical retrospective and analyse the basic theoretical and practical preconditions for concluding mega-regional agreements (MRTAs).