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Commission President José Manuel Barroso and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper have reached a political agreement on the key elements of a Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) after months of intense negotiations between EU Trade Commissioner De Gucht and Canadian trade Minister Ed Fast.
It will be the first free trade agreement between the European Union and a G8 country. On the basis of this political breakthrough, the negotiators will now be able to continue the process and settle all the remaining technical issues. Subsequently, the agreement will need to be approved by Council and Parliament.
The EU-Canada agreement will remove over 99% of tariffs between the two economies and create sizeable new market access opportunities in services and investment. Once implemented, the agreement is expected to increase two-way bilateral trade in goods and services by 23% or €26 billion, fostering growth and employment on both sides of the Atlantic. The overall benefits of the agreement are expected to raise the level of the EU’s annual GDP by approximately €12 billion a year.
According to the Canadian Pork Council (CPC) in addition to securing free access for processed pork products on the day this new agreement takes effect, Canada will acquire a quota volume equivalent to over 80 thousand tonnes of pork cuts. Canada currently imports a significant volume of high value pork ribs from the EU and the pork industry sees the market opportunity for shipping hams and other pork cuts to the EU.
Friday October 18, 2013/ European Commission/ EU.
http://europa.eu/rapid
Canadian Pork Council/ Canada.
http://www.cpc-ccp.com
