WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL
TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP (TPP):
The 12-country TPP — which includes Canada, the U.S., Japan, Mexico, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam — represents a market of nearly 800 million consumers and almost 40 per cent of the global economy, with a combined GDP of about $28.5 trillion.
U.S. President Barack Obama announced in 2009 the U.S.’s intention to participate in the TPP, which was already in the works. Canada, not wanting to miss out on a potentially mammoth trade deal, indicated its interest in joining negotiations in 2011 and joined the talks in the fall of 2012. The TPP will be more important to the Canadian economy than NAFTA.
COMPREHENSIVE ECONOMIC AND TRADE AGREEMENT (CETA):
The Canada-EU free-trade agreement will eliminate tariffs on most products and services, and give Canadian companies preferential access to an EU market of 500 million consumers in 28 member states with almost $18 trillion worth of economic activity.
The EU is Canada’s secondlargest trade and investment partner, next only to the United States. The EU is also the world’s largest economy, bigger than the U.S. CETA will eliminate 98 per cent of tariff lines in the EU and Canada on the first day it takes effect. Canada and the EU announced an agreement in principle in October 2013 and the full text of the deal was released in September 2014. While the deal has been signed, it is still being ratified by member countries. Like the TPP, dairy and Canada’s supply management system were a contentious issue in CETA.
NORTH AMERICAN FREE-TRADE AGREEMENT (NAFTA):
NAFTA came into effect on Jan. 1, 1994, and created, at the time, the largest free trade region in the world. In 1993, trilateral trade within the North American region was over $288 billion US but has now surpassed the $1 trillion mark. Under NAFTA, the North American economy has more than doubled in size, with the combined gross domestic product (GDP) for Canada, the U.S., and Mexico now around $20 trillion US, up from $7.7 trillion US in 1993.