The economic partnership between the EU and Canada dates back to 1959, when Canada accredited its first Ambassador to the European Economic Community (EEC). Under the 1976 Framework Agreement for Commercial and Economic Co-operation, Canada and the EEC committed “to promote the development and diversification of their reciprocal commercial exchanges to the highest possible level”. Since then, the EU and Canada have concluded several agreements covering a wide range of economic activities.

Economic relations remain at the heart of the EU-Canada relationship. In 2010, trade in goods between the EU 27 and Canada accounted for € 46.64 billion, trade in services between Canada and the EU 27 amounted to € 18 billion. EU-Canada investment in 2009 was worth € 277 billion. After the United States, the EU is Canada’s most important trading partner, while Canada ranks 11th among the EU’s trading partners. The EU is also the second largest investor in Canada (after the US), while Canada ranks third largest investor in the EU (after the US and EFTA). The EU and Canada are committed to build on these strong economic ties.        

 

At the 2008 Summit, the EU and Canada agreed on the objective of progressing towards a strengthened, ambitious and balanced economic partnership. A scoping exercise to determine the shape and key elements of such an agreement, led to the adoption in 2009 of the Joint Report and thereafter to the drafting of negotiating directives. The negotiations towards a Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement were launched at the EU-Canada Summit on 6 May 2009. The EU-Canada relationship is currently being significantly reinforced and upgraded with the negotiations of two major agreements: the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA), an ambitious free trade agreement that will cover goods, services and public sector procurement, and a new Framework Agreement, the Strategic Partnership Agreement covering political cooperation and policy dialogues across the broad spectrum o the relationship. Both these agreements are expected to be finalised in the course of 2012.

The European Union and Canada have made several political commitments to intensify cooperation between regulators. The current state of regulatory cooperation is recorded in the EC-Canada Regulatory Cooperation roadmap 2009-2010 (agreed in March 2009). The projects where regulatory cooperation is ongoing are: chemicals, electrical and electronic equipment and waste, equivalency of organic production methods and control, pharmaceuticals (including veterinary pharmaceuticals), radiation emitting devices, chemical contaminants in food, food allergen labelling and incident prevention, automotive, forest products and tobacco.