The European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday approved the trade agreement between Canada and the European Union after a noisy and sometimes emotional debate.
Roughly 58% of the members of the European Parliament (MEPs) voted to ratify the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), setting the stage for provisional application of nearly 90% of the agreement later this spring.
The final vote saw most of the MEPs representing Europe's centrist parties voting in favour, with opposition from members representing left-leaning socialist and Green as well as right-wing, nationalist parties.
Europe forged a deal in 2011 with South Korea, but CETA is a larger and more ambitious deal in many respects.
It drops and phases out tariffs and grant new market access for a wide range of products including agricultural commodities, but also opens up Canadian government contracts to foreign companies and moves to harmonize certification as well as labour and environmental standards between the two trading partners.
EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom, who worked closely with Chrystia Freeland, Canada's former trade minister and now minister of foreign affairs, to see CETA through to its signing ceremony last October, said ratification heralded the start of a new era in Canada-EU relations.
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