Partner Article

A new door open to Canada?

Last week the European Union agreed a landmark free trade agreement with Canada - a move that Whitehall suggests can benefit the UK economy by over £1.3bn.

So what does the sight of Barroso and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper mean? Well, the UK is Canada’s second largest trading partner, and again, Whitehall estimates that UK exports to Canada will increase by up to nearly 30%.

The deal is still to be ratified but is reported to remove 98% of tariffs on imported and exported goods.

While Canada should enjoy duty-free exporting of lumber, seafood and minerals (some of the country’s biggest exports) the EU will be able to take advantage of duty free exports in clothing and argricultural products.

Perhaps key to the deal is the opening up of Canadian government public procurement to EU businesses. Now sub-federal levels of government in Canada have committed themselves to bilaterally opening their procurement markets, and this is a market worth between $15-$19 billion. There is also plans to introduce a single online procurement portal so EU bidders should have better acces to this potentially lucrative area.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .