The ruling populist majority will
reject the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA)
free-trade deal between the EU and Canada, Deputy Premier Luigi
Di Maio said Friday, a move that was slammed by an important
employers group.
He said the CETA, which came into force on September 21 and
is now being ratified by EU members, would "have to arrive in
this chamber for ratification and this majority will reject it".
Di Maio said that if Italian "functionaries" try to defend
the free-trade deal they "will be removed from their posts".
As well as being deputy premier, Di Maio is also labour and
industry minister.
He is the leader of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement
(M5S), one of two government partners along with the
anti-migrant Euroskeptic League party of Interior Minister
Matteo Salvini.
Vincenzo Boccia, the head of industrial employers' group
Confindustria, said not ratifying CETA would be a "serious
mistake".
He said "CETA is in Italy's interests because we are a
country with a high export vocation and we create wealth through
exports".
Boccia went on: "If with this treaty Italy exports more it is
in the national interest, if it exports less then no.
"According to the data, it appears objectively to me that the
treaty opens up to Italy and does not close down.
"You have to interpret the data in a logic of country and not
category".
Economy Minister Giovanni Tria said "I have not followed the
dossier", adding that "the devil is in the details".
He said "my personal opinion is that free trade, which is
extended also through trade deals, is always a good thing, but
you have to see how these accords are made".
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