Taking Stock of CETA

Early Impacts of the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement
October 1, 2019
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The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between Canada and the EU was provisionally implemented on September 21, 2017, but won’t come fully into force until all European member states choose to ratify the deal. A new report by CCPA trade researcher Scott Sinclair and Monitor editor Stuart Trew, written for Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (U.S. and Canada), assesses some of the agreement’s key early impacts on Canada. The report examines changes in bilateral trade patterns (including exports from small and medium-sized companies), continuing quantitative imbalances in Canada’s bilateral trade with Europe, and the composition of imports and exports. It then attempts an early assessment of how public procurement “liberalization” under CETA has affected public contracts, noting that a recent Via Rail contract could not favour Canadian-made Bombardier trains over a bid from Siemens due to new restrictions on “buy local” policies. Finally, the report briefly examines CETA’s impacts on access to affordable medicines within Canada, the agreement’s potential impacts on public services, and the implications of the regulatory co-operation processes instituted within CETA’s more than a dozen bilateral working groups.
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