Matthias Brinkmann, the EU’s ambassador to Canada, said the last major hurdle in the trade talks is focused on Canadian demands to export more beef to Europe and European demands for better access for their dairy products — particularly cheese — in Canada.
Negotiations have been going on for more than four years but Brinkmann told reporters the two sides had hammered out the general elements of a deal, which will be the biggest trade liberalization pact signed by Canada since NAFTA in 1994.
“I think we have the landing zones identified for all sectors where we negotiate,” Brinkmann said Thursday. “But as always, the most difficult sectors remain open to the end.
“Like in most negotiations, it is agriculture that is the most difficult one,” Brinkmann added.
But he said negotiators are making progress and it is hoped a deal will be reached by the summer. After that, it would take about two years for it to be approved by EU member states, he said.
He said an emerging war of words over sales in Europe of petroleum from Canadian oil sands will not affect the trade talks. Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver has threatened to complain to the World Trade Organization if the EU goes ahead with a fuel-quality directive now being discussed by European countries. It would label crude from Canada’s oil sands as dirty oil that contributes disproportionately to global warming.
The Harper government disputes this designation and is lobbying Europeans to reject it.
Both Canada and the EU publicly insist that the spat over Canada’s oil sands exports won’t interfere with the efforts to get a trade deal.
Trade Minister Ed Fast said the fuel-quality directive issue “is on a completely different track” than the free-trade talks. He told the media that more open trade is the key to revitalizing the world economy in the aftermath of the lingering 2008-2009 recession.
Brinkmann called talk of a WTO appeal “premature” given that the fuel quality directive isn’t even in place yet.
“Mr. Oliver, he threatens us to appeal to WTO against something which doesn’t exist yet,” he told reporters.
But Brinkmann also expressed confidence that the directive will be able to withstand challenges once it is adopted.
“We are confident that our measure will be non-discriminatory and science-based and will stand the test at the WTO,” Brinkmann said.
Asked whether he thought Oliver was being “pushy” by taking Ottawa’s arguments directly to Europe, Brinkmann declined to comment, saying only, “You said it.”
However, Oliver’s lecturing on the fuel-quality issue is the latest in a series of irritants between Canada and the European Union. European officials are upset at Canada’s opposition to the EU’s request for observer status at the Arctic Council, an eight-member body that meets on northern issues. And they are disappointed that free trade talks have dragged out, especially after they thought a deal could be clinched in February.
Brinkmann pointedly noted that with the EU set to begin trade talks with Washington and Japan, negotiations with Canada “won’t be any easier” because of “resource problems.”
“Our chief negotiator for Canada is already starting these negotiations with Japan,” Brinkmann said.
A free trade pact with the EU would open up a European market of 500 million consumers to Canadian producers.
But critics fear it could drive up the costs of prescription drugs in Canada, limit local governments’ ability to favour Canadian companies in contracts for large projects and give foreign corporations disproportionate power to challenge government decisions in Canada.
Brinkmann and Fast were both attending an event Thursday in Ottawa celebrating Europe Day.
Original Article
Source: thestar.com
Author: Les Whittington and Bruce Campion-Smith
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