The leaders of the EU and Canada have to sign officially the free-trade agreement CETA on Sunday.

The signing was postponed for three days while the Belgian government negotiated the additional guarantees for European consumers and producers demanded by the regional authorities in Wallonia.

The content of the trade agreement has not been changed in any way, said to journalists the President of the European Commission Jan-Claude Juncker.

Before the beginning of the meeting, Juncker pointed out that he does not see any link between the negotiated trade standards with Canada and the future negotiations on Brexit.

The comprehensive trade and economic agreement opens the markets of the EU and Canada by abolishing customs taxes to the amount of EUR 0.5 B per year. It encourages businesses, investments and the participation in public procurement orders of companies from the two sides of the Atlantic.

It is expected that trade exchange will increase to EUR 12 B annually.

The agreement may begin to be applied partially but in order to enter into force, it will have to pass through at least two years of ratification procedures by the European Parliament and the parliaments of Canada and the 28 member-states of the EU.

The package of documents which will be signed on Sunday contains written guarantees that, by the end of 2017, Canada will abolish visas for Bulgarian and Romanian citizens.

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