BRUSSELS, Belgium—After a chaotic drama in which a small Belgian region threatened to sink a giant trade deal seven years in the making, the European Union and Canada will finally sign on the dotted line on Sunday.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau agreed at the last minute to fly to Brussels to ink the landmark pact known as CETA at a summit with European Union President Donald Tusk and European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker.
Trudeau’s plane was briefly forced to turn back due to mechanical problems and the start of Sunday’s summit was delayed until 1100 GMT with the signing due at 1230 GMT, officials said.
The ceremony had already been pushed back from its planned date on Thursday, after Belgium’s French-speaking region of Wallonia, with just 3.6 million people, refused to agree to the terms of a deal affecting more than 500 million Europeans, along with Canada.
Wallonia resisted huge pressure from all sides until it won concessions—for regional farming interests and guarantees that international investors will not be able to force governments to change laws—allowing Belgium to sign the deal late Friday, enabling Tusk and Trudeau to set a new date.
The Belgian drama had sparked dire warnings for both the EU’s credibility following Britain’s shock vote to leave and for the Western economic system in general at a time of widespread uncertainty.
Trudeau hailed it as a “good sign in an uncertain world” in a phone call with Tusk, an EU source told AFP.
Underscoring the relief on the EU side, which is also struggling to stay unified in the face of a huge migration crisis spawned by the war in Syria and over its policy towards a resurgent Russia, former Polish premier Tusk tweeted “Mission accomplished!”
Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said “nothing is simple in Belgium but few things are impossible” as he officially signed up to the deal on Saturday.
Formally known as the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), the deal removes 99 percent of customs duties between the two sides, linking the single EU market of 500 million people with the world’s 10th largest economy and a member of the G7 club of industrialized powers.
But it had been hanging by a thread due to protests from Wallonia, a formerly wealthy industrialized region in Belgium’s south that has now fallen into rust-belt decline, alongside opposition from other French-speaking communities.