The trade row that just won’t go away
The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement has yet to be ratified, and opinion is split on whether it actually represents a good deal for Ireland
On a typically hot summer’s day in Nicosia in Cyprus last July, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (Ceta) between the EU and Canada came before the Cypriot parliament for ratification.
The trade deal had been signed four years earlier, but Cyprus was one of 12 EU member states which still hadn’t ratified the agreement, prompting a growing sense of frustration on both sides of the Atlantic.
As politicians, business people and lawyers in Brussels ...