Trade agreement comes into place next week
By Kaitlynn Anderson
Staff Reporter
Farms.com
In another move toward free trade, Canada and the European Union (EU) will officially start to follow the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) on Sept. 21.
Canada will remove 90.9 per cent of all agricultural tariffs on products imported from the EU, while the EU will remove 92.2 per cent of all agricultural tariffs on products imported from Canada, according to a summary from the European Commission.
Sensitive products in both Canada and the EU (including eggs, dairy, chicken meat and turkey meat) will still be subject to tariff restrictions, according to the summary.
The Government of Canada released tariff schedules for these sensitive products last year.
Some of the annual tariff rate quotas (TRQs) on sensitive products, mentioned in the European Commission’s summary, are as follows:
Item | TRQ |
Dairy | Canada will open a bilateral annual quota for the EU of 17,700 tonnes of cheese. 16,000 tonnes are for high quality cheeses and the remainder are for industrial cheeses. In addition to the 17,700 tonnes, 800 tonnes of cheese will be included as a technical adjustment to an existing TRQ, bringing the total to 18,500 tonnes of cheese. |
Beef | Canada will have tariff-free access to the EU for 45,838 tonnes of beef annually. 30,838 tonnes of this amount are for fresh beef. In addition to these exports, 4,162 tonnes of fresh beef will be included to compensate for the existing beef TRQ. All amounts are expressed in carcass weight equivalents (CWE). |
Pork | Annually, the EU will grant Canada tariff-free access for 75,000 tonnes of pork (CWE). In addition to this amount, the existing TRQ of 4,625 tonnes will be included in the agreement. |
Sweet corn | 8,000 tonnes of tariff-free canned sweet corn from Canada will be allowed into the EU annually. |
Common wheat | Canada will be allowed to export 100,000 tonnes of low- and medium-quality common wheat into the EU annually without tariffs. Once tariffs on common wheat are fully phased out in CETA, this TRQ will be removed. |
Look up the tariff levels for Canadian products being exported here.
Products subject to the entry price system in the EU, such as fruits and vegetables, will also still be subject to tariff restrictions, according to the summary. The entry price system sets a minimum price at which the imported produce must be marketed.
In an interview with Farms.com, Eric Schwindt, board chair at Ontario Pork, provided the following statement:
"We believe CETA can be a big opportunity for Ontario producers, but it's going to take time to realize that opportunity because there are a lot of phytosanitary measures that need to be harmonized."