CETA, the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement between Canada and the European Union, is turning three years old on September21st 2020, bringing the already successful Trans-Atlantic trading relationship to new heights. Customs duties or tariffs were eliminated on most products and the Agreement opened opportunities for manufacturers, exporters,importers, wholesalers,distributors, retailers and consumers on both sides of the ocean. In addition to making European and Canadian products more competitive in our mutual markets, it created openings for services and public procurement in both directions.
There are advantages for both sides. CETA provides Canadian exporters with access to a huge market, at a time when Canada’s largest export market, the United States, has become a bit unpredictable, so the Agreement is a great diversification tool. For European exporters, Canada is a modest but stable market and it’s seen as a potential bridgehead to the U.S. market.
To get a snapshot of the evolution of the goods trade since CETA’s inception, we’ve looked at how it evolved between 2017 and2019. 2020 figures have been of course impacted by Covid-19: international trade nose-dived across the board in March and has not yet reached pre-pandemic levels.
