Consultations towards a Canada-European Union comprehensive economic agreement

Closing date: June 30, 2009

On May 6, 2009, Canada and the European Union (EU) announced the launch of negotiations towards a comprehensive economic agreement. With a market of nearly 500 million consumers, the EU is Canada’s second largest trade and investment partner. The Joint Study, Assessing the Costs and Benefits of a Closer EU-Canada Economic Partnership, estimates that trade liberalization between Canada and the EU could lead to a $12 billion boost in Canada’s annual gross domestic product, and increase bilateral trade by over 20 percent. A bilateral trade agreement with the EU will help to protect and advance Canada’s future prosperity, by generating new investment and export opportunities through improved access to the European marketplace.

In order to ensure that Canadian priorities are taken into account during the negotiations, the Government of Canada is consulting Canadian stakeholders with an interest in the EU market. These consultations will continue throughout the negotiations, and will focus on a number of issues that are subject to negotiation, specifically those pertaining to access for goods (including tariff and non-tariff barriers), rules of origin, technical barriers to trade, intellectual property, cross-border trade in services, investment and government procurement.

The attached questionnaire seeks your preliminary input on goods, services and investment. We invite you to submit your views on those questions of most relevance to your organization.

Please note that you may have already been consulted by Government of Canada officials, or you may already have submitted input to the Government of Canada under the Canada Gazette notice published in December 2008. In such cases, it is not necessary to re-submit information already provided; however, additional input is welcome.

• Questionnaire on a comprehensive economic agreement between Canada and the European Union (no longer online)

All interested parties are invited to submit their views by June 30, 2009.

For more information on this initiative, please visit the Web page "Canada-European Union: Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) Negotiations".

Thank you for taking the time to share your views. Your comments are most appreciated.

Contributions may be sent to the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade via:

Tariffs and Goods Market Access Division (TPG)
Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
Lester B. Pearson Building
125 Sussex Drive,
Ottawa, ON K1A 0G2
Fax: 613-992-6002
E-mail: consultations@international.gc.ca