After a small country like Belgium stalled the signing of the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), Canada and the European Union signed it on October 30. While the Liberal government will take credit for this historic agreement, the Harper government and then Ag Minister Gerry Ritz did much of the leg work. Nevertheless, good news for Canada’s agricultural sectors, especially those who are so dependent on exports.

The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA) says the Canadian beef cattle sector has championed for a long time the CETA likes the prospective elimination of EU import tariffs on nearly 65,000 tonnes of Canadian beef. With this new access, the EU has the potential to become a $600 million annual market for Canadian beef, up from current levels of approximately $6 to $10 million per year.

CCA director and Foreign Trade vice-chair Doug Sawyer travelled to Brussels last week to highlight the immense potential of the CETA for the Canadian beef sector and to emphasize the need to resolve the outstanding technical barriers.

“It was clear that the EU recognizes the value of the CETA and put their shoulders to the wheel to secure that recognition by all their member states,” said Sawyer. “Beef access to the EU is a core expected benefit from Canada and we will expect a further effort to be put into removing the remaining technical barriers.”

After seven years of negotiations, officials signed the CETA deal in Brussels by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, president of the European Council Donald Tusk, president of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker and Slovak Prime Minister, Robert Fico for Slovakia’s Presidency of the Council of the EU.

“We are pleased that the agreement has been officially signed,” said Canola Council of Canada president Patti Miller. “A key element of CETA is the elimination of tariffs on canola oil entering the EU immediately upon implementation, which could increase our exports by up to $90 million per year.”

Canadian canola is used for biodiesel production in the EU as part of their strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Canola-based biodiesel reduces greenhouse gas emissions by up to nine per cent compared to conventional diesel.

CETA also includes a commitment to create a biotechnology working group to address the timeliness of approvals for genetically engineered products, science-based policy and the development of a low level presence policy.

“The canola industry expects the EU to follow through on its commitments so that we can find solutions to trade uncertainty and disruption related to biotechnology,” said Miller.

With the official signing complete, the complete text of the agreement can no longer be amended and can now begin the ratification process through the Canadian Parliament and the legislatures of the 28 member countries of the EU. Implementation is expected in 2017.

Manitoba Pork chair George Matheson welcomes the signing of CETA. The 28-country European Union (EU), with a population of 500 million, is both the world’s largest exporter (C$188 billion) and largest importer (C$166 billion) of agriculture and agri-food products. However, imports of consumer-oriented items such as meat continue to face significant tariff and nontariff trade barriers. CETA will secure tariff free access for processed and fresh pork products equivalent to almost 80,000 tonnes after a phased-in period of five years.

Europe is the only important pork-consuming region in the world for which Canada currently has little effective market access. Limited by very high tariffs and onerous import administration rules, Canada’s pork exports to the EU in 2011 were only 415 tonnes. This compares to total Canadian pork exports in that year of over 1.1 million tonnes.

“The opportunity to access a wide variety of markets, such as those that CETA will deliver, is key to Manitoba’s continued success as a globally competitive producer and exporter of high-quality pork and pork products to the world,” said Matheson. “While there are ongoing technical negotiations with CETA, we are hopeful that these can be resolved, allowing Manitoba pork producers to enjoy a significant increase in exports to the European Union.” •

— By Harry Siemens