You're listening to the European Parliamentary Research Service podcast on the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement with Canada.

Few acronyms have raised as much debate among the public and in political spheres as CETA, the comprehensive economic and trade agreement between the EU and Canada.

Despite negotiations having concluded in September 2014,

few could have predicted the trouble awaiting its approval. Stay with us and we'll walk you through

the main points of this controversial trade agreement. Canada and the EU are good trading partners.

Proof of this is that in 2015, European and Canadian companies exchanged goods for a total

amount of 64 billion euros, making Canada the EU's 11th most important trade partner.

In turn, the EU is Canada's second most important trade partner out to the USA.

So what do we sell to each other?

Well, the EU is mainly interested in

Canadian machinery, precious metals and mineral products, while Canada looks for European

transport equipment and chemicals. And it's not only about goods, trade in services, mostly

transport, insurance and communication services amounted to nearly 28 billion euros in 2014.

But there is untapped potential that both sides are eager to explore.

So negotiations are a comprehensive economic and trade agreement between the EU and Canada

started in May 2009 and concluded in September 2014.

The overall aim is to increase flows of goods, services and investment

to the benefit of both sides. For EU companies operating on Canadian markets, it would mean

overcoming the current disadvantage vis-à-vis U.S. competitors, which benefit from the North

American Free Trade Agreement. For Canada, CETA would be the most important agreement in terms of trade

and investment volumes since NAFTA and would help reduce its dependency on the US business cycle.

In 2008, a joint study by the Commission and the Canadian government on the potential impacts

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