Canada faces new trade tests from Italy as feds battle challenges on many fronts
OTTAWA — Add Italy to the growing list of Canada’s trade headaches.
Italy’s agriculture minister said his country’s new government won’t ratify the Canada-European Union free trade accord, media reports said Thursday. Gian Marco Centinaio, whose government is led by a populist coalition, also insisted he’s heard doubts about the 28-country deal from many of his European colleagues.
The development adds to Canada’s collection of trade challenges, which already include deep uncertainty surrounding the future of the North American Free Trade Agreement, hefty steel and aluminium tariffs imposed recently by the United States and the threat of more to come on automobiles.
Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, in Washington on Thursday to try to jump start stalled NAFTA negotiations, told reporters she believes Italy will eventually sign on to the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement, or CETA.