It was announced yesterday through many different news agencies that the European Union foreign ministers have agreed to officially enter free trade talks with Canada.
A joint European/Canada study determined that a free trade agreement could deliver $18.5 billion to the EU and $13 billion to Canada annually*. In addition, expectations are that the agreement will cover professionals temporarily working abroad and intellectual property rights among other things.
One of the articles mentioned above noted that all levels of Canadian government (Federal, Provincial, Territories) will be involved with the negotiations, which is great news. Each area of Canada has its own nuances, issues, and strengths and should be represented as such at the table.
While this is great news for Canada, my hope is that they take some of the lessons learned from the last free trade agreement we entered into (read: NAFTA) and ensure that Canadian interests are protected.
- We need to ensure that we don’t open ourselves up to litigation from foreign companies because we enact laws to protect our people that said companies may not profit as much from.
- We need to ensure that our natural resource exports are protected, so that while we can take advantage of the FTA, we also have the ability to turn off the tap if we determine a need for those resources at home.
- We need to ensure that there is truly an openness to professionals working in either entity, and that the model to enable this does NOT follow that of NAFTA.
While I propose we enter these discussions cautiously, I’m also ecstatic that Canada is taking another step to reduce their dependence on the US and ensure that we as a sovereign country take care of our own.
The European Union/Canada summit will be occurring on May 6th. Watch your favourite news site and this blog for details of the event.
*Numbers are in Canadian dollars I’ve seen other numbers such as $27 million (USD?) and just under 20 million Euros as the potential annual value.
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