...[European trade commissioner Cecilia] Malmstrom says a lack of awareness in Canada and a wave of anti-globalization nationalism abroad may be contributing to the country’s sluggish start to seizing opportunities in the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA)...
CETA has been in effect provisionally for one year, eliminating tariffs on 98 per cent of goods flowing between Canada and the European Union, according to Global Affairs Canada.
However, figures from Statistics Canada show that after years of modest growth, Canadian exports to the EU grew just one per cent year-over-year in the first 10 months after CETA’s implementation. Meanwhile, imports from the EU shot up more than 12 per cent between October and July, compared to the same period in 2016-17.
“It does show that Europe has been a little quicker out of the gate compared to Canadian businesses,” said Mark Agnew, director of international policy at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.
“Part of the pitch that Canada makes about the value of inward investment is that you have access to the North American market... Building relationships and supply chains takes time, he stressed, and the Europeans have more experience in diversifying trade...
The strained relations between the U.S. and both Canada and the EU ...should underscore the need to find more trade partners, he added.
Canadian aluminum exports to the EU surged 206 per cent in the 10 months after Sept. 21, 2017, when a three per cent tariff was dropped. Exports of motor vehicles and parts to Europe shot up 96 per cent as more passenger vehicles headed across the Atlantic, benefiting from lowered car tariffs of 7.5 per cent this year from 10 per cent in 2017 amid a phase-out that stretches to 2024...
This is excerpted from 27 September 2018 editoin of The Canadian Press.