Canadians will soon have access to an increased array of European-made produce at better prices, thanks to a trade agreement between Canada and the European Union that takes effect today.After years of heated negotiations which almost fell through when then-International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland dramatically walked out on talks with the regional government of Wallonia, CETA will finally be implemented, giving Canadian companies greater-than-ever access to a $20 trillion market across the Atlantic.Over 98 percent of Canadian goods — food and agricultural products, clothing, vehicles and machinery, just to name a few — will now be able to enter any country in the EU without tariffs, meaning that European importers will not have to pay an extra tax if they choose to purchase a Canadian good. Prior to CETA taking effect, only 25 percent of Canadian goods were allowed to enter the EU tariff-free.Some relevant examples; Canadian salmon used to be slapped with a 15 percent tariff when it entered Europe’s borders — that tariff, along with tariffs on all Canadian fish and seafood products will now be eliminated. European lovers of Canadian maple syrup will notice a slight drop in price — the eight percent tax on maple syrup exports will also cease to exist.For Canadian consumers, you’ll start to see more kinds of European cheese at grocery stores because under CETA, the quota for European cheese imports is more than doubling over the next five years. Meanwhile, Canadian importers of European chocolate and confectionary will no longer have to pay a 10 percent tariff, meaning that chocolate prices of European brands like Lindt and Ferrero Rocher will potentially go down, provided of course that they are manufactured in a European factory.The EU is Canada’s second largest export destination, after the U.S — just last year we exported roughly $42 billion worth of goods to the 28-member countries of the EU. “The middle class and those working hard to join it will have countless new opportunities to compete and win in the European Union,” said Canada’s Minister of International Trade, Francois-Phillipe Champagne, in a statement released this morning.Indeed, that is not all rhetorical. Canadian companies have long sought the elimination of European tariffs because it would grant them equal, competitive access to a market of 510 million consumers.“[Equal access] is very, very important for Canadian companies, especially nowadays when a lot of companies are really thinking of diversifying their export business given the uncertainty they’re seeing south of the border,” Todd Evans, an economist at Export Development Canada told the Canadian Press.But CETA is not just a bilateral treaty that involves the exchange of goods. It includes provisions on intellectual property rights, climate change, investment protection and food security, some of which have been the subject of intense public debate.A particularly contentious clause within CETA is something called the Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) — it allows foreign companies or investors to sue governments, using private arbiters, for decisions that they perceive to have harmed their investments.“In the EU and Canada, foreign investors already enjoy extensive protection through the legal system: property rights are fully enforceable in impartial courts. There is thus no need for securing special rights for foreign investors under international law,” argues a 2016 study on CETA put out by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.But a joint study by the trade ministries of Canada and the EU concludes that the economic benefits of CETA far outweigh any kind of bill taxpayers might incur because of the ISDS provision — the study predicts CETA will boosts Canada’s income by $12 billion annually, which is the equivalent of creating 80,000 new jobs.Follow Vanmala on Twitter
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