The intra-Belgian disagreement was resolved in the last days of October and paved the way for the signing of CETA. On 28 October, the Belgian regional parliaments authorised the federal government to delegate full powers and the following day Foreign Minister Didier Reynders signed on behalf of Belgium. [60] [61] The next day, Sunday, October 30, 2016, the treaty was signed by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, European Council President Donald Tusk, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico (when Slovakia chaired the Council of the European Union in the second half of 2016). [62] On August 5, 2014, Canada and the European Union agreed on the final text of a free trade agreement. The text was obtained by EU Member States and Canadian provinces and territories. An agreement in principle was signed on 18 October 2013 by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and european Commission President José Manuel Barroso. Negotiations were concluded on 1 August 2014. [25] The trade agreement was formally presented on 25 September 2014 by Mr Harper and Mr Barroso at an EU-Canada summit at the Royal York Hotel in downtown Toronto. [26] The Canadian Business Roundtable served as a parallel business process from the launch to the conclusion of the CETA negotiations. Initially, it was unclear whether EU member states should ratify the agreement, given that the European Commission considered the treaty to fall within the EU`s sole competence. [57] However, in July 2016, it was decided to qualify CETA as a “mixed agreement” and thus to be ratified in national proceedings. [58] These are only the provisions of copyright. There are sections dealing with patents, trademarks, designs and (shortly) geographical indications.

The consolidated text of CETA deals with a long section on “intellectual property rights”, IPRs (pp. 339-375) on copyrights, trademarks, patents, designs, trade secrets and licenses. Reference is made to the TRIPS Agreement (p. 339 f). In addition to the interests of the pharmaceutical and software industry, CETA promotes the pursuit of “camcording” (Article 5.6, p. 343). In particular, negotiations on food exports have taken a long time. Interests related to European cheese exports and Canadian beef exports have helped to protect this type of intellectual property and to draw up long lists of “geographical indications identifying a product originating in the European Union” (pp. 363-347).

[39] At the Canada-EU Summit in Ottawa in December 2002, Heads of State and Government made a joint statement on the development of a large-scale, forward-looking bilateral agreement to improve trade and investment. On March 18, 2004, at the Canada-EU Summit in Ottawa, Heads of State and Government agreed on a framework for an Agreement on Improving Trade and Investment (TIEA). . . . .