Canada, EU fight over trade
Deal must be contingent on rights, sustainability, ambassador says,
The European Union’s new ambassador to Canada says any potential free-trade deal between the two sides is contingent on a side agreement on security, human rights, and sustainable development that includes a “suspension clause” for which the Conservative government continues to have concerns.
Canada, however, is rejecting the EU’s assessment of the situation, as the two sides continue to battle over an elusive free-trade agreement that the Conservative government initially promised would be completed by the end of 2012.
New EU Ambassador MarieAnne Coninsx said Tuesday the two sides must complete a wide-ranging “Strategic Partnership Agreement” (SPA) — a broad umbrella agreement for co-operating on a number of fronts — before the European Union will proceed with any free-trade agreement with Canada.
“Our position is that there is a linkage,” Coninsx said in a briefing Tuesday. But a spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said Canada disagrees with the EU, insisting there is no need to conclude the strategic partnership agreement before completing the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).
“We have been very clear, the Strategic Partnership Agreement is completely separate from the CETA. Negotiations on the SPA began almost two years after the launch of the CETA negotiations,” Rick Roth, director of communications for Baird, said Tuesday in an email. “There is no legal impediment to concluding the CETA while SPA negotiations are ongoing.”
The Canada-EU free-trade negotiations have dragged on for more than four years, with both sides trying to resolve their differences on a few outstanding issues that are believed to include Canadian beef access into Europe and EU access into Canada’s supply-managed dairy sector.
But before that deal can be completed, the EU says Canada and the European Union must also sign on a SPA that commits both sides to a number of general principles, including promoting peace and security, protecting human rights, and a commitment to economic and sustainable development. The two main tenets of the European Union’s agreements with other countries include a commitment to promote human rights and fight against proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, according to EU officials.
Like other deals, the proposed SPA with Canada would also include a “suspension clause” that explains what breaches — be it on human rights or another issue — would justify suspending any successful Canada-EU freetrade deal.
The EU ambassador says the two accords are linked, so the overdue trade deal can’t be completed until both sides agree to a strategic partnership agreement that Canada continues to raise concerns with over the language.
“If we would say, ‘ OK, with all agreements in the world but not Canada,’ it would send out a wrong signal to other countries, and we have still other upcoming negotiations to do. Therefore, it’s important that especially Canada, a like-minded country, subscribe to this,” Coninsx said.
“And I’m sure they subscribe to it, but they have, for the moment, still some difficulties on the formulation of the suspension clause.”
Coninsx says there are few outstanding issues that must be resolved to reach the agreement, but Canadian officials still have concerns over language around human rights.
Canadian officials have raised concerns over the past couple of years with the dispute resolution section, according to federal officials who have worked on the SPA.
As for the free-trade deal itself, the ambassador said Tuesday negotiations have intensified over the past few weeks and that “very good progress” is being made on the CETA.
However, she would not comment on specific trade irritants such as potential Canadian beef quotas in Europe and the EU’s demands for greater access to Canada’s dairy sector.
“What will be the final outcome, I do not know,” she said of the free-trade negotiations.