However, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made clear he was losing patience with the EU over the pact, which both sides say could boost bilateral trade by 20 per cent.

The court in Karlsruhe rejected emergency appeals by activists to prevent Berlin from endorsing the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) before it has been ratified by national parliaments.

Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel, who has championed the pact as Europe’s best chance to shape the changing rules of global trade, said the ruling paved the way towards ratification.

“I am very pleased that we have made a first big step, because if Europe were not able to deal with Canada, this would send a difficult signal in the world,” he said.

EU trade ministers are due to vote on the accord next week and Brussels and Ottawa then hope to sign it on Oct. 27.

But its final approval is far from certain, as the ministers have signalled they want unanimous support from the 28 member states to allow it to enter force.

Trudeau, in by far his most outspoken criticism of the EU, said on Thursday CETA was a turning point for the bloc.

“If we find in a week or two that Europe is incapable of signing a progressive trade deal with a country like Canada, then who does Europe think it can do business with in the years to come?” he said in forceful remarks to reporters in Ottawa.

“If Europe doesn’t manage to sign this deal it will be a very clear message – not just to Europeans but to the entire world — that Europe is choosing a path that is perhaps not very productive… That would be really sad,” he added.

The parliament of the French-speaking community in Belgium backed a motion on Wednesday to prevent the country signing up to CETA. Belgium’s federal government favours the pact, but needs the support of the country’s regions and linguistic communities to give its formal approval.

Opponents argue CETA is undemocratic and will undermine workers’ rights and worsen standards for consumers.

Slovenia’s government, whose position had been uncertain, said on Thursday that it backed CETA, while a final decision would be made by parliament in coming weeks.

Austria’s chancellor, who has expressed strong objections, said his decision on whether to back the deal would depend to a large extent on the German court’s ruling. Earlier on Thursday he struck a conciliatory tone, saying many of his concerns had been addressed in an additional declaration.

Widely seen as a possible blueprint for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), a bigger trade deal the EU has been negotiating with the United States, CETA aims to eliminate tariffs on 98 per cent of goods immediately.

CETA also encompasses regulatory co-operation, shipping, sustainable development and access to government tenders.

In its ruling, Germany’s highest court said Berlin must ensure that only parts of CETA within the competence of the European Union, such as the removal of tariffs, should be allowed to apply provisionally — meaning before it is ratified by EU member states.

This means that a system of investor protection also envisaged in the accord, which opponents say will hand too much power to multinationals, may come into force only after ratification by national parliaments.

— Reporting for Reuters by Caroline Copley in Berlin and David Ljunggren in Ottawa. Additional reporting for Reuters by Philip Blenkinsop in Brussels and Marja Novak in Ljubljana.

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The SPD decision paves the way for EU member states to approve the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) next month before Brussels signs the accord with Ottawa on Oct. 27.

Left-wing SPD members had argued that CETA would undermine workers’ rights and environmental standards, but party leader Sigmar Gabriel said it represented the EU’s best chance to shape globalization in the interests of ordinary people.

“It’s a really good day for the SPD but especially for the implementation of rules for globalization,” Gabriel told a news conference after two thirds of delegates at an SPD congress backed a compromise deal over CETA.

Gabriel, who is also vice-chancellor and economy minister in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative-led coalition, has staked his political future on securing SPD backing for CETA.

Failure at Monday’s congress, would have likely scuppered Gabriel’s chances of standing as the SPD candidate for chancellor in national elections due in October 2017.

This might have unleashed a damaging power struggle within the SPD at a time when it is badly trailing Merkel’s conservatives in opinion polls. The coalition’s popularity has also suffered following Merkel’s decision last year to open Germany’s borders to more than one million migrants.

In a joint statement, EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom and Canada’s Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland said they were committed to making “formal clarifications” on parts of the accord where there are still concerns.

“Clarifications”

Freeland later said neither side wanted to make changes.

“We are not reopening CETA. The negotation is final, it is concluded,” she told reporters on a conference call. The clarifications, she added, would offer further guidance as to what the deal would encompass.

These include areas such as the delivery of public services, labour rights, environmental protection and an investment dispute settlement mechanism.

CETA aims to eliminate tariffs on 98 per cent of goods immediately and also encompasses regulatory cooperation, shipping, sustainable development and access to government tenders.

It will require the approval of the European Parliament before taking effect, prior to ratifications by national parliaments which could take five years or more.

SPD critics of CETA see it as a blueprint for TTIP, a parallel trade deal the EU is trying to negotiate with the U.S.

Around 180,000 people took part in rallies on Saturday in seven German cities against both trade deals, police said.

— Reporting for Reuters by Holger Hansen and Caroline Copley, with additional reporting by David Ljunggren in Ottawa.

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Industry and government immediately sought to play down the report from the Munich Environmental Institute.

The Brauer-Bund beer association said the findings, which were based on a small number of samples, were not credible. Germany’s Federal Institute for Risk assessment said the levels did not pose a risk to consumers’ health.

“An adult would have to drink around 1,000 litres of beer a day to ingest enough quantities to be harmful for health,” it said in a statement.

Under the “Reinheitsgebot,” or German purity law — one of the world’s oldest food safety laws and celebrating its 500th anniversary this year — brewers have to produce beer using only malt, hops, yeast and water.

Glyphosate was brought into global use by Monsanto in the 1970s and is used in its top-selling product Roundup as well as many other herbicides around the world.

The environmental group, an investigative body, said it had tested Germany’s 14 top-selling beer brands and said all showed traces above the 0.1 microgram limit allowed in drinking water. It added that no general conclusions about the contamination of certain brands of beer could be made.

Brauer-Bund said there were government controls in place in breweries to ensure that no harmful substances made their way into the production pro­cess. Its own monitoring syste­m for malt has never detected levels of glyphosate that were above the permitted maximum limits, it added.

Hasseroeder, a beer brewed in Saxony-Anhalt in eastern Germany and owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev contained the highest trace of glyph­o­sate at 29.74 micrograms per litre, the institute said. The smallest amount, 0.46 micrograms per litre, was found in Augustiner, made in Munich.

Anheuser-Busch InBev said it questioned the scientific integrity of the tests due to the small number of samples. It rejected the institute’s allegation that brewers were not adequately monitoring raw ingredients as “absurd and completely unfounded.”

European Union regulators are currently reviewing whether to renew approval for glyphosate. The World Health Organization’s cancer research committee has said glyphosate was probably carcinogenic to humans, but the European Food Safety Authority has said it is unlikely to cause cancer.

Germany is Europe’s biggest producer of beer and is home to more than 1,300 breweries which produce about 5,000 different beers.

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