While the U.K. Brexit vote sends the EU into turmoil and the U.S. Trump campaign vows to tear up NAFTA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Canadian governments are doubling down on the trade treaty front. In addition to ongoing efforts to lock down the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) with Europe, Canada’s provincial and territorial governments just reached an agreement-in-principle that will reboot Canada’s domestic trade deal with a once-in-a-generation overhaul.
As CBC News reported, the Premiers reached an “unprecedented” Canadian free-trade deal in Whitehorse. Speaking as the chair and spokesperson for the group this year, Yukon Premier Darrell Pasloski revealed that the new Canadian Free Trade Agreement, or CFTA — unlike the current Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT), which covers only certain certain sectors — “virtually covers the entire Canadian economy and will have unprecedented transparency on how the federal government, the provinces and the territories will regulate.”
The National Post also reported on the “historic” interprovincial trade deal. B.C. Premier Christy Clark stated that “If there was ever a time when Canadians need to come together and have free trade in our own country, it must be now when Americans are making noises like that,” in reference to anti-trade comments by U.S. Presidential candidate Donald Trump.
As noted in the CBC News article, the premiers took a “negative list” approach to negotiating the deal. Under the negative list approach, everything will be deregulated or harmonized across provinces except for an identified list of items. That list has not yet been made public, leaving many questions surrounding exemptions and how local procurement preferences will work in actual practice. Yukon Premier Pasloski remarked that the parties “will be working towards how we can slowly eliminate over time the exemptions that do exist on those lists.”
CTV News quotes Alberta Premier Rachel Notley as emphasizing the need for balance, noting “It’s really important that we open up trade across the country, but it’s also important to ensure that where there’s a need for provincial governments to engage intentionally in economic stimulus or regional development that they’re able to do that.”
While a deal has been reached in principle, the details remain to be announced and there is no indication of when the CFTA will come into effect.
