After many months of patience and impatience, stagnation and revival, the President of the European Commission, Mr. José Manuel Barroso, and the Prime Minister of Canada, The Right Honourable Stephen Harper, have reached a political agreement, which is an understanding-in-principle of the key elements of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (the CETA).
This agreement will allow Canadian businesses better access to the most integrated market in the world, and as such will give them a substantial advantage compared to commercial partners from States (or groups of States) that have not (yet) concluded such agreement with the European Union. In addition, exports from Canadian businesses are currently focused on the American market, creating a dependency. Thus, the larger window to an important market with an equally important number of potential consumers will create an opportunity for Canada to diversify commercial relations.
There has been a deadlock on the abolition of tariff customs barriers in the multilateral negotiations of the Doha Round conducted by the World Trade Organization (WTO). Many nations have therefore continued to negotiate commercial liberalization with their main partners to generate the expected results in growth and employment without having to wait for the hypothetical completion of the multilateral negotiations held at the WTO.
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