Free trade deal: EU and Canada will sign deal on Sunday

Free trade deal: EU and Canada will sign deal on Sunday

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described it as "great news" and said he looked forward to attending.

Source: Twitter

A signing ceremony planned for Thursday had to be cancelled after a Belgian region vetoed the agreement.

But after marathon talks, a consensus was finally reached allowing all 28 EU states to formally approve the deal on Friday.

The EU needed unanimity among all its 28 members and Belgium needed the backing of all its regions to approve the pact.

Mr Trudeau had been due to sign CETA with EU leaders in Brussels on Thursday, but was forced to cancel his flight.

Work on the agreement was launched in 2009 and the text was actually finalised two years ago but sat in limbo awaiting endorsement.

Mr Antoine thanked the parliamentarians for working in "real democratic transparency".

He said: "This closes two years of work."

Politicians in Wallonia had argued that the proposed deal would undermine labour, environment and consumer standards and allow multinationals to crush local companies.