Belgian PM says cannot sign off on EU-Canada trade deal

Brussels: Belgium is not able to sign off on a landmark EU-Canada free trade deal after Wallonia and other regional administrations refused to give the federal government the go-ahead, Prime Minister Charles Michel said on Monday.

"We are not in a position to sign CETA," Michel said after brief talks with Belgium´s regional leaders in Brussels broke up without an accord despite a looming EU deadline of late Monday.

"The federal government, the German community and Flanders said ´yes.´ Wallonia, the Brussels city government and the French community said 'no'," he added.

A small Belgian region refused to bow to growing pressure to back a key trade deal with Canada, heightening tensions within Belgium and Europe as well as with historic allies in North America.

Riding a rising wave of Western populist distrust of international trade deals, French-speaking Wallonia's parliament stuck to its refusal to heed a late Monday EU deadline to support the pact.

Its opposition prevents the federal Belgian government from signing the accord, which needs to be backed by all 28 European Union member states.

"It won´t be possible to respect this ultimatum," Wallonia parliament head Andre Antoine told RTL radio, referring to a late-Monday deadline set by EU president Donald Tusk for the country to say whether it could support the pact.

Paul Magnette, the leader of the Wallonia region, rejected the "ultimatum" as "incompatible" with democratic practice when it was disclosed on Sunday.

The stand-off means EU leaders may have to cancel a summit they had scheduled for Thursday in Brussels with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to sign the deal.

The pact, known as the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), would link the EU market of 500 million people, the world´s biggest, with the tenth largest global economy.

A European source, who asked not to be named, said Tusk is due to speak later Monday to Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel to see whether he has made enough progress to allow Trudeau´s visit to go ahead.

Tusk is also due to speak to European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker before then briefing Trudeau himself.

The source did not say exactly what time a decision had to be made, nor did Tusk´s office formally announce a deadline.

Antoine said it was important to get the deal right as it could pave the way for future trade pacts with economic powers such as the United States and China.

"We must therefore have a solid legal basis," he said. Wallonia leaders say more time is needed to study a draft deal which Antoine said is massively complex and covers "300 pages of the treaty, 1,300 pages of appendices."

Critics especially fault terms supposed to protect international investors which, they say, could allow them to force governments to change laws against the wish of the people.