Canada reveals detail of EU FTA
On Wednesday it revealed details of the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), announced on 18 October. These included a new 50,000-tonne (t) carcase weight duty free import quota for beef and veal, made up of 35,000t carcase weight for fresh and chilled products, and 15,000t carcase weight of frozen products.
This quota incorporates Canada’s previously temporary right to export to Europe 3,200t of beef or veal by product weight, (or 4,160t carcase weight), established to solve the long-running World Trade Organisation (WTO) dispute over the EU’s ban on hormone-treated beef.
In addition, upon ratification of the deal – which could take until 2015 – a duty-free quota for 11,500t product weight of high-quality beef will be opened immediately, replacing a current 20% duty-free quota of this size. Carcases could also be sold to Europe under this quota. Canadian exporters would also continue to have access to their existing EU beef import quotas. And all sales of Canadian processed beef to the EU would become duty-free upon ratification.
As for other meats, Ottawa has negotiated the opening of a duty-free quota of 3,000t carcase weight for Canadian bison. And the EU also agreed to open a duty free quota of 81,011t carcase weight for Canadian pork (fresh, chilled or frozen), which incorporates Canada’s current quota of 4,624t product weight or 6,011t carcase weight.
Exports of Canadian pig fat; salted, dried, smoked and cured boneless pork; and many other processed pork tariff lines, including sausages, would also enter the EU duty-free. All these non-beef rights will come into force upon implementation of the agreement.
Meanwhile, there was an interesting deal over some European meat geographical indications, with Canada agreeing to prevent their use by Canadian producers for all languages but Canada’s official languages of English and French.
In an explanatory note, Ottawa said: “The following terms continue to be free for use in the Canadian market, in both official languages, regardless of product origin: Black Forest ham, Tiroler bacon…. For example, Canadian producers would be able to use English and French, but not the German language for Black Forest ham (Schwarzwälder Schinken).”
Also, on sanitary and phytosanitary issues, there was agreement that the EU and Canada would reform their inspection systems, so that they recognised each other’s standards, allowing them to dispense with a range of health-based import controls.
The parties “agreed to proactively determine equivalency of each other’s inspection and certification systems”, reaching a mutual recognition agreement within a year, said the Canadian note. “A sanitary and phytosanitary measures joint management committee of experts [would be created] to discuss issues before they become problems,” it added.
Specifically, the EU agreed to advance a proposal to accept recycled hot water as a carcase-decontamination agent as a legitimate method for meat sold in all member states.
