I'm in West Block 209, listening to representatives of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters and the Canadian Council of Chief Executives testify at a meeting of the Commons standing committee on international trade.
The committee is considering Bill C-2, An Act to implement the Free Trade Agreement between Canada and the States of the European Free Trade Association (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland), the Agreement on Agriculture between Canada and the Republic of Iceland, the Agreement on Agriculture between Canada and the Kingdom of Norway and the Agreement on Agriculture between Canada and the Swiss Confederation. (Mouthful, that one, isn't it?)
Negotiations on this trade deal are done and the deal will likely get signed this summer. MPs, though, are not unanimous that this would be such a good thing.
At this committee's last meeting, we heard from witnesses representing labour groups that this deal with EFTA will be bad for Canada's perennially struggling shipbuilding industry. (Norway, it is feared, will eat our shipbuilding lunch)
Today pro-deal groups note the following:
- Combined trade with these relatively small group of European countries totals $12.9 billion a year, making this our fifth largest trade relationship.
- we do more business a year with EFTA than with all of South America combined.
- This is our first bilateral trade deal with any European country. For that reason, “It offers huge symbolic value,” said David Stewart-Patterson of the CCCE.