Arbitration scheme obstacle to EU-Canada trade deal

The French-speaking region of Wallonia may be the final hold-out against a planned EU-Canada free trade deal, but its view that a system to protect foreign companies threatens democracy is shared by many protesters across Europe. Investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) was once a term known only to international trade experts, but became the rallying cry of those opposed to EU-U.S. trade negotiations when these were launched three years ago. Were it not for planned EU-U.S Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) could well have sailed through like the EU's last major deal, with South Korea in 2011.