Federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz says Canada’s proposed free
trade deal with Jordan holds opportunities for Canadian farmers.
“Jordan is a country of opportunity,” Ritz told a Nov. 17 news conference after introducing the bill in the House of Commons.
“We see Jordan as a real market for a number of our sectors.”
He
said the Middle Eastern country imports close to $7 million worth of
pulse crops, frozen french fries, beef, animal feed and prepared foods
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each year from Canada.
Ritz said he sees that trade increasing partly because Jordan offers Canada access to a broader Middle Eastern market.
According
to the legislation, debated for the first time in Parliament Nov. 18,
Jordan will eliminate all non-agricultural tariffs and most
agricultural tariffs including on pulse crops.
Currently,
tariffs range from 10 to 30 percent. Goods protected under Canada’s
supply management system, such as dairy and poultry products, are
exempt from the agreement to end tariffs on imports of Jordanian
products to Canada.
In the Commons, Conservative MP Gerald Keddy predicted great things will flow from the agreement.
“The reality is that the potential here for jobs and opportunities is exponential,” he said.
“The
best example is to look at how the United States was doing before it
signed its free trade deal with Jordan. It was doing $200 million worth
of trade. Today, it is doing $2 billion worth of trade.”
Jordanian ambassador Nabil Barto agreed the potential is there.
“Many
ambassadors in Ottawa would like to be standing here today,” he said at
the news conference with Ritz. “I believe there is much more room to
increase trade between our countries.”
The Canada-Jordan free
trade agreement is not expected to be as controversial in Parliament as
has been the Canada-Colombia, entangled in an eight-month filibuster in
the Commons because of complaints by New Democratic Party and Bloc
Québécois MPs about Colombian human rights abuses.
