Canadian trade minister Peter Van Loan is predicting that by the end of next year, Canada and the European Union will have signed a comprehensive free trade deal.
The fourth round of negotiations ended in Brussels, Belgium, recently and both sides have agreed to review progress late this year to decide if there is enough common ground to complete a deal next year.
When negotiations started last year under the Canadian leadership of former chief agriculture negotiator Steve Verheul, both sides said if it could not be done in two years, it would not be done. A protracted negotiation was not in the cards.
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Van Loan suggested last week he already has his answer.
“We believe we are on track to having an agreement in place by the end of 2011,” he told a July 22 news conference on Parliament Hill after a meeting with United States trade representative Ron Kirk.
“While we hope Doha (World Trade Organization negotiations) will be on track and we’ll support and be as constructive as we can at every step of the way in assisting that to happen but we’re not waiting for it. We’re moving forward on all fronts.”
It would be the largest bilateral trade deal by Canada since the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994, creating the potential for billions of dollars in additional food and agricultural commodity trade.
Van Loan used the occasion to take a swipe at the trade policy of the former Liberal government.
“We believe the previous government made a mistake by focusing entirely on the Doha Round at the expense of other trade opportunities,” he said.
“While we strongly support it, we’re not going to stand around and wait for it.”
He cited as evidence of the new Conservative strategy the recent parliamentary decision to approve a Canada-Colombia free trade deal as well as negotiations completed with Jordan and negotiations underway with various countries including South Korea and Ukraine.
Kirk told reporters that the U.S. considers getting trade deals with Colombia and Panama through Congress as priorities.
However, in the face of congressional hostility to the Colombia deal, he conceded there are “a number of issues to be resolved” before it will win approval. “We will do everything we can to bring them to Congress in the near future.”
