A new free trade agreement for the Walloon Parliament

The Walloon majority approved Wednesday evening, in plenary session of the Parliament of Wallonia, the free trade agreement between the European Union on the one hand and Colombia, Peru and Ecuador on the other hand. And this despite the protests of the opposition-the PS and Ecolo voting against- and under the stern eye of the members of the NGO platform CNCD-11.11.11 who attended the debates.

This treaty, in force since 2013, "is based on outdated impact studies and does not take into account the issues of sustainable development", had denounced in particular Hélène Ryckmans (Ecolo) during the afternoon. "It does not provide any control mechanism or binding to ensure compliance with environmental and social standards," she added.

"This is a purely commercial agreement, whose mix is ​​only a few precise provisions, "Maxime Prévot had told him for the cdH. "We must not mix everything up and not put all the treaties in the same bag: the bulk of what worried in the negotiations on Ceta (the free trade agreement between the European Union and Canada, Eds. ) is not in this agreement with the Andean countries, which also contains significant advances, "he added.