Trade negotiators from Canada and the European Union meet in Ottawa this week for talks that could determine if a comprehensive free trade deal is possible by the 2011 deadline.It is the fifth round of talks since negotiations began a year ago and both sides have agreed to review progress after this week and to determine if there has been enough movement to conclude a deal next year.If not, both sides have said they will drop the talks rather than get into protracted negotiations.On Oct. 18, trade minister Peter Van Loan said a deal could open up $12 billion in trade possibilities for Canada and agriculture would be a major winner.”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.”He said it would be Canada’s largest trade deal since the Canada-United States Trade Agreement in 1989.Canadian agricultural exporters, including the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance, the Canadian Wheat Board and the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, support the talks.The National Farmers Union, in alliance with the Canadian Labour Congress and the anti-free trade Council of Canadians, is campaigning against the deal.The NFU said last week that a leaked text it received last spring shows farmers would lose power to multinationals and the right to farmer-saved seed would be jeopardized.Supporters of the negotiations insist the “text” the NFU has seen is an early working document that does not reflect any of the hard bargaining that remains to be done over sensitive issues including Canada’s supply managed system, state trading enterprises like the CWB and other farm programs.Van Loan said Oct. 18 that while the EU has some farm policy demands, it also wants to retain much of its Common Agricultural Policy, which many competitors see as protectionist. That gives Canadian negotiators leverage.The tough compromises have yet to be settled.”We are of course defending our supply management system,” he said. “All issues are of course on the table but in the European Union, they also have very significant agricultural programs … which they’re interested in. So all these issues will be negotiated at the table and we will be forcefully defending supply management.”As the talks began Oct. 18, CAFTA chair and Ontario cattle producer Stan Eby said it is a chance too good to miss.”Opening the European market for Canadian agriculture and food products is critical,” he said in a statement. “Canada remains too reliant on the United States as a destination for our agriculture and food products.”He said more than half of Canada’s food exports go to the U.S. and just five percent go to Europe, often because Europe’s protectionist policies.
Canadian-EU negotiators meet to determine if talks worth continuing
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