Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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429. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if his attention has been drawn to the fact that the negotiations between Canada and the EU on a comprehensive economic and trade agreement, CETA, are almost complete; if he has raised any concerns about including investor state dispute settlements, ISDS, provisions in the agreement; if his attention has been drawn to the EU’s sustainability impact assessment on CETA, which recommended against including an investor state dispute mechanism; and if he will raise concerns and objections about the inclusion of any ISDS provisions in the CETA at EU level. [34629/14]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Political agreement on the key elements of a Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the EU and Canada was announced in October last year, and it is expected that the conclusion of negotiations will be announced at the EU-Canada Summit on 26 September, 2014.

The Agreement will cover virtually every aspect of economic activity, and is an extremely important one for Ireland. It is the first comprehensive trade agreement with an historically close trade and economic partner of the EU and is a landmark deal between our two transatlantic economies. It is estimated that the opportunities presented by this agreement could add well over €200 million to Ireland’s current €2.7 billion bilateral trade with Canada, thus creating more jobs and contributing to our economic recovery.

The Agreement is intended to cover flows of both trade and investment. So in addition to providing protection to investors, the Agreement also seeks to address the modalities for addressing any disputes which might arise. Such Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provisions will be part of any final Agreement. The EU’s Sustainability Impact Assessment made a number of policy recommendations on the matters of investment, investment protection, and ISDS. The EU Council agreed that ISDS would be included in the negotiations on the Agreement.A document published by the EU Commission on its website explains the safeguards in place in the ISDS provisions. This document can be found at: