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Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Labor Minister Luigi Maio said he would not ratify the Comprehensive Trade and Commerce Agreement (CETA), a free trade agreement between the Union European Union (EU) and Canada.
"The ratification of CETA will soon be addressed by the parliament," Dimaio told a meeting of a peasant organization in Rome on Thursday, November 13, "but the majority party led by our party refuses and will not ratify. " .
He said: "Italian officials who defend CETA should leave their post".
The Italian entrepreneurial group immediately reacted to this statement by Dimao
President Vincenzo Boccia of Confindustria said that "the failure of ratification of CETA would be a serious mistake".
"Italy is a country with a high percentage of exports, creating wealth through exports," he said, "CETA is an agreement that meets the interests of Italy ".
The CETA, signed in October 2016, provides for the elimination of 98% of tariffs for trade between Europe and Canada, but faced significant opposition within the EU since its signature.
Opponents fear that European labor, environmental and consumer standards will be undermined by CETA, and that local businesses are likely to fall foul of multinational corporations .
Italy is particularly concerned that farmers may be struck by the lack of adequate protection of their own specialties, such as CETA parmesan cheese, balsamic vinegar and so on.
Italy considers that PDO products and geographical areas C & # 39; is the country that has the highest number of display protection products (PGIs), but CETA It only requires about 40 PDO and PGI products out of 292 in Canada.
The coalition of populism in Italy, launched on March 1 with the dissolution of the opposition party "Oseong Movement". led by Dimao, is due to this concern and the refusal to ratify CETA on the common program of public administration.
On the other hand, CETA, which came into force in September of last year, will only become effective after ratification by the 28 member countries of the United States. EU.
Thus, if Italy's ratification of the treaty became a reality, CETA itself, considered the largest FTA with the EU in recent years, could not be ruled out. .
(Rome-Yonhap News) Correspondent of Hyun Kyung Hyun
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