AFP: Canada, EU on track toward free trade: officials

[pampango]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iiFHmtFlu0s-mFYoIt51k9mZSjrA?docId=CNG.f5101c535ed3b394f79d8c72e83edaba.931

Canada and the European Union are on track toward signing a free trade agreement by the end of 2011, trade representatives said Wednesday. After "taking stock of progress" made to date, Canadian Trade Minister Peter Van Loan and EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said they were "satisfied with the substantial progress that has been made in the negotiations."

Van Loan and De Gucht said liberalization of trade and services, including the removal of tariff and non-tariff barriers, would provide a 20-billion euros (26 billion dollars US) boost to their economies. For Canada, the trade negotiations with the European Union are its "most significant trade initiative since the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement," said Van Loan.

Van Loan noted that Canada would become the first nation to secure free trade with both the European Union and the United States. Pundits have speculated that a trilateral deal to combine the world's two largest trading blocs, the EU and NAFTA, may be in the works. "It's definitely something they consider a longer term possibility," Van Loan told AFP.

But De Gucht doused hopes for a trilateral mega-trade pact anytime soon. A Canada-EU-US free trade agreement "is not on our radar screen at the moment," EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said after talks with his Canadian counterpart Peter Van Loan. "We have no plans for a free trade pact with the United States," he explained.

I think Mexico already has such agreements with both the US and the EU, so Canada would not be the first. Sorry about that Mr. Van Loan. ;)