Brussels, 9 February 2024
I am delighted to welcome Minister Ng to Brussels. We have the pleasure to co-chair today’s Joint Committee meeting of the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).
This yearly meeting is an opportunity for us:
- to assess the economic impact of CETA;
- to take stock of all the work done to implement the agreement; and
- to set priorities for our future cooperation.
The EU-Canada Comprehensive Trade Agreement is now in its 7th year and one thing is very clear. It works. It is a true success story.
It delivers tangible, positive results across the EU and its 27 Member States. For workers, for farmers. Across sectors and from large to small companies.
In 2022, our trade in goods increased by 66% and trade in services by 62%, compared to pre-CETA levels (2016). On latest figures confirm this upwards trend.
In addition, CETA provided the EU with a solid, trusted source of supply for key resources such as energy and raw materials, at a critical moment at the wake of Russia’s war against Ukraine. Concretely, in these sectors, EU imports from Canada increased by a quarter (+ €6 billion) in just one year in 2022 compared to 2021.
In this context, let me also say I welcome the approval of the updated Canada-Ukraine trade agreement by the Canadian Parliament. It is important to stay the course in providing all the necessary support for Ukraine.
On clean tech, CETA is unlocking major partnerships. Just last year, Stellantis and Northvolt secured subsidies from Canada worth a combined €15 billion to develop a battery giga-factory in Quebec. And Canada and Volkswagen have committed over €13.8 billion for Volkswagen’s first overseas electric vehicle battery manufacturing plant in Ontario.
And here in the EU, Canada has teamed up with companies specialised in manganese and lithium.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
A trade agreement means constant work in progress. So today we want to move forward on a few things in particular:
First, we will get the chance to clarify how investment protection standards in CETA should be understood, especially in light of the climate emergency. Notably, we are aiming for an “Interpretation on Investment” that clarifies that the “right to regulate” for environmental purposes, which also includes tackling climate change.
This is good news, in particular for the parliaments of those EU Member States that still need to ratify CETA where we know that concerns have been raised in the past over these provisions.
We hope it will help the other 10 Member States convince their decision makers to adopt CETA.
As I mentioned, CETA delivers for small and medium sized companies in particular. And we are now finalising new rules to ensure that SMES have access to investment dispute resolution.
This matters because 2,500 additional SMEs have started exporting to Canada since CETA. So, it was important to ensure that the investment dispute resolution is also accessible to individual citizens and SMEs. These new rules will allow to reduce the length of proceedings before the Tribunal, ultimately reducing costs.
It will provide a clear benefit to SMEs and improve their ability to participate and benefit from the opportunities created by CETA once CETA is ratified fully and this part of CETA enters into force.
CETA is also a strategic relationship that allows us to tackle global challenges as partners. A relationship that matters more than ever at a time of major geopolitical turmoil.
So we also want to expand our cooperation to new areas.
For instance, we will advance cooperation on net-zero industries. And in building secure supply chains in critical raw materials and clean technology sectors such as batteries
For example: in building secure supply chains in critical raw materials and clean technology sectors such as batteries.
And we are also putting in place an economic security dialogue.
Here, we are going to look at coordinated response to identifying and mitigating risks to our economic security through our cooperation on outbound investment, export controls and FDI screening.
Last but not least, I am happy to say that, on the EU side we continue to make progress on the ratification of CETA by several EU Member States where it is still under provisional application. In particular, we welcome the ratification steps taken by the Netherlands and Germany and calling on other Member States to move on with the ratification of this important agreement.
Source – EU Commission