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Canada, EU push forward on trade pact talks

20 October 2011, 21:58 CET
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(OTTAWA) - A "productive" ninth round of talks toward a trade agreement between Canada and the European Union are due to wrap up on Friday, Canadian Trade Minister Ed Fast said.

"I am pleased to report that another milestone has been reached in Canada-EU trade negotiations, with Canadian and EU officials exchanging offers on services and investment," Fast said in a statement.

"Once final, this agreement will protect and strengthen the long-term financial security of hard-working Canadians. With one in five Canadian jobs dependent on trade, a trade agreement with the European Union has the potential to benefit Canada enormously."

Fast said a Canada-EU trade pact would boost bilateral trade by 20 percent and give a $12 billion annual boost to Canada's economy, as well as create 80,000 new jobs.

The negotiations started two years ago.

To date, "significant progress" has been achieved across the board, said Fast, including in core market access for goods, services, investment and government procurement.

"While some issues still need to be resolved, negotiations are now well-advanced and solutions to them are being actively explored," he added.

The 27-nation EU is Canada's second-largest trade partner after the United States, and the number two foreign investor in the resource-rich North American country.

Bilateral exports and imports total about CAN$100 billion (US$98.5 billion) annually, according to official data.

In the past six years, Canada has concluded free trade agreements with Colombia, Jordan, Panama, Peru, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, and most recently with Honduras.

A deal with the EU would be Canada's second-largest free trade pact, after the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement with the United States and Mexico, and the first to include access to municipal procurements.

However, environmentalists, farmers, auto workers and others have rallied against it.

Fast has said Ottawa hopes to complete negotiations by 2012.

EU trade relations with Canada


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canad, eu trade

Posted by Demir Arabaci at 21 October 2011, 01:32 CET

the eu has a moral responsibility to ensure that the canadian government(s) are not condoning the extremely polluting oil sands projects that poison the water table in alberta almost as badly as the bp accident in the gulf of mexico.
The real damage of that greed will show itself when babies are born with two heads and no arms etc.
people in the current governments please do not play with the health of the innocent.
And please read about the "love canal" blunder in the 60s and 70s and learn from it.

Greed and profits are short lived but nobody's health should become an object of a greedy gamble.