Canada-European Union - Trade and Investment Enhancement Agreement

At the Canada-European Union Summit in Ottawa on March 18, 2004, the leaders agreed to a framework for a new Canada-EU Trade and Investment Enhancement Agreement (TIEA) and reiterated their commitment to reaching a successful conclusion to the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Doha Development Agenda.

The TIEA, first conceived at the December 2002 Canada-EU Summit in Ottawa, is an ambitious and forward-looking initiative, responding not just to current issues, but also anticipating future challenges and creating opportunities to broaden and deepen the trade, investment and overall relationship with the EU. The TIEA is an important element in the development of Canada’s broader relations with the EU, particularly as the EU expanded to 25 members in May 2004. Collectively, the EU’s twenty-five member states represent Canada’s most important trade and investment partner after the United States. In 2005, two-way merchandise trade amounted to approximately $70 billion, while two-way direct investment surpassed $214 billion.

This new agreement is intended to move beyond traditional market access issues and would include areas such as trade and investment facilitation, competition, mutual recognition of professional qualifications, financial services, e-commerce, temporary entry, small- and medium-sized enterprises, sustainable development, civil society consultation, and science and technology. The TIEA will also build on a ARCHIVED - Canada-EU regulatory cooperation framework for promoting bilateral cooperation on approaches to regulatory governance, advancing good regulatory practices and facilitating trade and investment. In addition to lowering barriers, the TIEA would heighten Canadian and European interest in each other’s markets and could bring considerable economic benefits to Canada.

The TIEA Framework provides a list of the mutually agreed chapter headings of issue-areas for inclusion under the TIEA with a brief description outlining the scope to be negotiated.

The TIEA negotiations were launched in Brussels May 17-18, 2005. Another set of talks occurred later that year in Ottawa, October 5-6, 2005. The third round of negotiations was held in Ottawa, February 20-23, 2006. To date, discussions have taken place on the following issue-areas: regulatory cooperation; services (domestic regulation, mutual recognition of professional qualifications, temporary entry, financial services, and e-commerce); government procurement; trade facilitation; investment; sustainable development; intellectual property rights; science and technology cooperation; small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); and institutional provisions.

Consultations

In April 2003, the Government of Canada launched extensive domestic consultations with business, citizen-based organizations and individual Canadians, as well as with the provincial and territorial governments, to obtain advice and views on priorities, objectives and concerns on the scope of the proposed bilateral trade and investment enhancement agreement as well as on barriers to the European market to be addressed in the context of ongoing WTO negotiations.

The Government of Canada was in the process of undertaking a Strategic Environmental Assessment of the negotiations for a Trade and Investment Enhancement Agreement with the European Union and had invited comments on any likely and significant environmental impacts of the negotiations on Canada. The closing date for comments was September 16, 2005. Work on the environmental assessment will continue when the TIEA negotiations resume.

Contact Point

If you have questions or comments about this initiative we would like to hear from you. Please contact the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development at:

Regional Trade Policy Division (TBB)
Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
Lester B. Pearson Building
125 promenade Sussex Drive
Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0G2
Fax: 613-944-3489
E-mail : consultations@international.gc.ca

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