Canadian beef and pork producers welcome the signing of the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President of the European Council Donald Tusk signed the CETA deal in an official ceremony Sunday in Brussels.
“Canada is a globally competitive producer and exporter of pork and pork products. We have worked hard to develop a global reputation as a reliable supplier of safe, wholesome, high-quality pork. The key to sustaining our success, however, is the ability to access a wide variety of markets,” said Canadian Pork Council Chair Rick Bergmann, in a news release.
According to the Pork Council, the agreement will secure tariff free access for processed pork products and will acquire a quota volume equivalent to 80 thousand tonnes of pork cuts after a phased in period of five years.
The Canadian beef cattle sector has been a long-time champion of the CETA and is pleased with the prospective elimination of EU import tariffs on nearly 65,000 tonnes of Canadian beef. With this new access, the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association says 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.
“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 CCA Director and Foreign Trade Vice-Chair Doug 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.”
The federal government says CETA will provide Canada with access to the EU’s more than 500 million consumers and noted that the elimination of EU tariffs will assist sectors in every region of Canada, including advanced manufacturing, agriculture and agri-food, automotive, chemicals and plastics, fish and seafood, forestry and value-added wood products, metal and mineral products and technology.
The deal still needs to be ratified. The Canadian government will introduce implementing legislation for CETA as soon as possible in the House of Commons. In the EU, the European Parliament will vote on CETA’s ratification, which will be followed by ratification in the national parliaments of EU Member States.
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