Talks on a Transatlantic Economic Partnership (TEP) have been going on for
a while now, but this is the first real public call, by a nation involved,
for NAFTA and the EU/EFTA to be linked. Beating this will make the struggle
against the MAI look very small indeed...
Canada wants giant EU-NAFTA free trade area
01:13 p.m Jun 16, 1999 Eastern
By Adrian Croft
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Canada pushed Wednesday for closer economic
links with the European Union, saying it backed a vast free trade
area between Europe, the United States, Canada and Mexico.
``Eventually we believe that that is a very ideal and attractive
end-game,'' Trade Minister Sergio Marchi said when asked if
Canada supported a free trade pact between the 15-nation EU and
the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which groups
Canada, Mexico and the United States.
Marchi told a Brussels news conference that an EU-NAFTA free
trade agreement was not close ``but it is a good idea and usually
good ideas ... stand the test of time.''
Canada would put the idea on the agenda and see what response it
got from EU leaders in the coming months, he said. As an interim
step, Marchi said Canada was interested in negotiating a
bilateral free trade accord with the EU and would raise the idea
in talks with EU Trade Commissioner Sir Leon Brittan Wednesday.
Brittan last year proposed an ambitious EU trade liberalization
agreement with the United States, but was forced to water down
the proposals in the face of French hostility. The EU is
negotiating with Mexico on a free trade agreement.
Marchi was speaking on the eve of a summit between EU and
Canadian leaders in Cologne, Germany Thursday whose highlight
will be the signing of a cooperation accord on antitrust matters.
In a speech to business executives in Brussels, Marchi made clear
he feared relations with Canada ranked low on the EU's list of
priorities.
In recent years, he said, the EU had been importing a smaller
percentage of Canadian goods and Canada had received a smaller
proportion of EU overseas direct investment.
``We simply cannot afford to remain in the EU's peripheral
vision,'' he said, adding: ``We need ... to consider how we can
animate and deepen our economic partnership.''
Marchi told reporters he would ask the European Commission
Wednesday not to impose an EU-wide ban on white asbestos until
the World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled on a Canadian complaint
against a French ban on the substance.
Most EU governments voted in May to ban white asbestos. The bloc
has already banned brown and blue asbestos due to evidence they
can cause lung cancer and other respiratory diseases.
The Commission, the EU executive, is expected to adopt the ban in
``the next week or two,'' Commission spokesman Jochen Kubosch
said Wednesday.
Marchi said the EU should hold off imposing the ban until a WTO
disputes panel rules in the autumn on Canada's case against the
French domestic ban.
But Kubosch said he did not think this would be acceptable to the
European Parliament or a majority of the EU's 15 member states.
``It's unlikely the WTO would say we were wrong,'' he said.
Marchi said Canada remained open to ``respectful offers of
compensation from Europe'' in a row over the EU's ban on imports
of hormone-treated beef.
The United States and Canada have both threatened to impose
sanctions on EU goods because of the EU's failure to lift the
ban, which they argue it was required to do under a WTO ruling.
The EU hopes to avoid sanctions by offering the United States and
Canada compensation in the form of greater market access for
other goods. But Marchi said the EU and Canada were far apart on
how much the compensation should be.
Canada is seeking C$75 million ($51 million) in compensation but
the EU has offered only C$3.5 million, Canadian ambassador to the
EU Jean-Pierre Juneau said.
Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited.
David.
David Wood
PhD Student ('The Rural Peace Dividend')
Department of Agricultural Economics and Food Marketing
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU
0191 222 5305
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