At the beginning of the latest round of Canada-European Union free trade negotiations in Ottawa, chief negotiator Steve Verheul said talks have entered a critical phase.
Within weeks, trade ministers from Canada and Europe will assess whether there has been enough progress to make a deal possible by the end of next year.
Both sides have agreed that if a deal is not possible in 2011, talks will be called off.
“The fifth round is going to be a fairly pivotal point in time,” Verheul, former chief agriculture negotiator at World Trade Organization talks, said before last week’s talks began.
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“It is a bit of a milestone for us. After five rounds, we’ve been talking about assessing how we’re doing and moving on.”
Trade minister Peter Van Loan made it clear that he wants to see a deal closed, arguing that it would open up $12 billion in potential new trade for Canadian exporters, including farmers and food companies.
“It is well ahead of schedule, ahead of what we anticipated,” he told reporters.
“And we expect we should be able to have an agreement in place by the end of 2011 if we stay on the trajectory we are on right now.”
On Oct. 22 as the week of talks was winding down, National Farmers Union president Terry Boehm and other NFU leaders were at a rally outside the negotiating room, denouncing the idea of a Canada-EU trade agreement as a threat to farmer-saved seed, supply management and public services. They joined union members and the Council of Canadians in opposing the talks.
Leaders of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, Grain Growers of Canada and the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance took the opposite position.
Doug Robertson, Alberta farmer and president of Grain Growers, said in a statement his group is enthusiastic about the possibility of a deal.
“It’s one thing to grow crops but it’s just as important that we be able to sell them so we are calling on politicians in all parties to support Canadian farmers by encouraging an aggressive approach to these trade talks.”
CFA president Ron Bonnett said the federation board debated the EU negotiation last week and supported a deal.
“We have issues about access for pork, beef, pulse crops and we have some non-tariff barriers like genetically modified seed and beef hormones that we need dealt with,” he said. “We support science-based rules and I think we have gains that can be made through those talks.”
Bonnett said there has been speculation about a threat to supply management.
“Some like to believe that supply management is holding this up but I don’t believe that since both sides have sensitive sectors they want to protect.”
New Democrat trade critic Peter Julian signalled that the NDP opposes a proposed Canada-EU trade deal.
If governments on both sides decide that a deal is possible, the next negotiation will be this winter in Europe.
