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Europe

EU leaders scramble to salve free trade pact with Canada

Associated Press
Published | Updated
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    European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker addresses the media after the first day of an EU summit in Brussels early Friday, Oct. 21, 2016. European Union leaders pledged early Friday to keep all options open to respond to any atrocities committed by President Bashar Assad's regime and his Russian backers in Syria but stopped short of threatening to impose sanctions. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert) (The Associated Press)

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    European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, left, and European Council President Donald Tusk address the media after the first day of an EU summit in Brussels early Friday, Oct. 21, 2016. European Union leaders pledged early Friday to keep all options open to respond to any atrocities committed by President Bashar Assad's regime and his Russian backers in Syria but stopped short of threatening to impose sanctions. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert) (The Associated Press)

  • a14e46c3-
    Image 3 of 3

    European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker addresses the media after the first day of an EU summit in Brussels early Friday, Oct. 21, 2016. European Union leaders pledged early Friday to keep all options open to respond to any atrocities committed by President Bashar Assad's regime and his Russian backers in Syria but stopped short of threatening to impose sanctions. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert) (The Associated Press)

BRUSSELS – European Union leaders are scrambling to salvage a free trade deal with Canada that is being held up by a small region in Belgium.

EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has warned that a failure to sign off on the deal could signal the end of such agreements between the 28-nation bloc and its global trading partners.

Juncker said he has invited Canada's International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland to join talks Friday with the EU and Belgium to persuade Paul Magnette, president of the French-speaking Belgian region of Wallonia, to sign off on a deal his legislature has repeatedly rejected.

Juncker says he doesn't see "how it would be possible to have trade agreements with other parts of this world" in the event the pact with Canada is torpedoed.