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Once applied, CETA will offer EU firms more and better business opportunities in Canada and support jobs in the EU, it will remove customs duties, end restrictions on access to public contracts, open-up the services market, offer predictable conditions for investors, etc.

Having in mind the existence of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), does the enabling of CETA provide the US corporations (at least some of) the opportunities cevered in TTIP? For example, is it possiblede jure for a US corporation just to register in Canada and to access the EU market, achieveing in this way indirectly the aims of TTIP?

Update: reflecting the remarks in the comments, a more direct version of the question would be:

Is there a legal path through which CETA could act as a back door for TTIP?

Ziezi
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    Could you rephrase the question to be more specific to include the nuance about a backdoor for TTIP which is essentially the core of the question. – Matthias dirickx Nov 03 '16 at 23:23
  • Also a similar question is already asked here apparently:http://economics.stackexchange.com/questions/14028/eu-and-north-america-with-ceta – Matthias dirickx Nov 03 '16 at 23:26
  • This question might get a better answer over at [Law.SE]. – Giskard Nov 04 '16 at 10:57
  • @denesp I understand you, however, the question is mostly related to Economics - international trade, which makes it inherently intertwined with law. A valid analogy would be a special solution to a physics problem, which in the same way as the OP is connected to law, would be connected to mathematics. – Ziezi Nov 04 '16 at 11:41
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    @Ziezi Indeed, it is not clear which is the best site for this question. Which is why I wrote 'might'. However my personal experience is that economic academics are not well versed in law. (For example I am not at familiar with general law.) – Giskard Nov 04 '16 at 14:50

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I did not have either the time or the courage to plough through the text. The last consolidated text I could find stems from 2014 and has since been amended with an annex. Changes made are unclear to me.

The full text can be found here.

Excerpts that might be useful in this case are article 1.2 and 1.3 with respect to the scope of the application. Other excerpts might be the articles 17.2 and 17.3.

AS for the relevance of articles 1.2 and 1.3: CETA applies to both the citizens and the territory of the agreeing countries.
So, assuming USA corporations can have, and often do have, offices in Canada these companies can through these offices take advantage of the CETA agreement, assuming they keep to the regulations and requirements guaranteed under CETA. This means not everything from TTIP will be directly transposable. There are other treaties that cannot be overruled by CETA.

But in a way yes - a corporation holding office in the Canadian territories could in essence access the European markets under the same conditions. At least that is what I understood. I get back to the question when I'm through the 1598 pages of text and annexes (the latter being the greater part, but not less important).

Vague answer I know. I'm looking forward to a more in-depth conclusion because what you ask is something that a lot of people here in Europe are worrying about.

Ziezi
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Matthias dirickx
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  • Thank you for the answer, it provides, at least, an initial point and direction on the subject. I will look through the suggested articles, in the mean time, if you find something new, please do add it. – Ziezi Nov 04 '16 at 11:51