EU involves every country in trade-deal approval process

The European Court of Justice ruled that all EU trade deals must be approved by all involved parties.

In a May 16 ruling on the EU-Singapore deal the ECJ established a precedent: Every nation’s parliament must sign off if the deal will impact that nation.

For some deals, that would involve more than 40 national and regional parliaments.

The European Commission claimed that it was authorized to speak for all member nations; since trade involves the EU as a whole, only the EC and the European Parliament needed to approve a trade deal.

The ECJ said the impact on some deals would affect some regions differently; therefore each region needed a say in the matter.

Under the new rule, even one small region could derail a deal the rest of the EU approved.

In 2016, and EU-Canada trade pact was nearly derailed because a tiny part of Belgium objected

The new rule could complicate Brexit negotiations.