European Union sends representatives to Canada to explore more trade possibilities as relationship with United States worsens
With darkness growing south of the border, Manitoba has looked east to the European Union and found sunnier approaches to trade.
The Canada-EU free trade deal is now in place, and EU members and Manitoba representatives recently got together to explore more trade possibilities as the trade climate south, in the United States, grows more protectionist.
“We learned much more than we anticipated,” said Stefania Szabo, Hungary’s consul general in Canada, who led a delegation of seven EU country representatives to Manitoba March 22-23.
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“We are very busy usually in Ontario and Toronto and were happy to learn there are equally good and sometimes better opportunities in Manitoba.”
The consuls of Hungary, Germany, France, Poland, Croatia, Italy and the Netherlands formed the delegation.
Especially with agriculture and manufacturing, increasing two-way trade appears promising, Szabo said.
The EU visit to Manitoba follows the implementation of the Canada-EU free trade deal, called the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, and the interest of Canadians and Europeans in finding new opportunities for trade and investment.
Manitoba’s government and business community encouraged the European consul generals to visit Manitoba to see the opportunities that lie outside Toronto and southern Ontario.
Of the EU’s 28 members, 16 have consul generals in Toronto, and seven made the trip to Winnipeg.
The group met with Premier Brian Pallister and cabinet ministers, as well as the province’s most prominent business groups. They toured research centres and pondered what Manitoba businesses could do for Europe, and what European businesses could do for Manitoba.
“Manufacturing is the main area where we see potential,” said Szabo.
Agriculture was also on Szabo’s radar, with Manitoba already supplying commodities to the EU.
While Manitoba is proud of local and regional innovations, Szabo said the visit to the Richardson Centre for Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals demonstrated how tighter connections with Europe could help.
“In this area, we all felt that Europe is more developed,” said Szabo.
“We are already far ahead than what we were shown, but this is also an opportunity for co-operation. It doesn’t have to be all the time that we learn from someone, but you can also learn from European innovation.”
Manitoba Agriculture Minister Ralph Eichler said he hopes to see increased ties and trade between Europe and Manitoba, especially with the questions hanging over Canada-U.S. trade.
“We’re looking outside, outside the boundaries of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) and taking advantage of CETA and (the trans-Pacific trade agreement),” said Eichler.
Szabo said EU nations represent a pro-trade partner that Manitobans should think more about, rather than the tendency to “just look south to the United States…. Look over the Atlantic to the European Union, which is the biggest trading bloc in the world.”
