A story in the Ottawa Business Journal reports a more conciliatory tone from Canada in relation to the outstanding issues that are standing in the way of closing the trade deal with the EU:
Peter Stastny, the union’s rapporteur on the Canada-Europe negotiations, said he is more optimistic than he was several months ago.
“The good news is, that I keep hearing, more and more a kind of conciliatory and optimistic rhetoric, particularly from the office of Prime Minister Harper of Canada,” Mr. Stastny said Thursday in a briefing to the European Parliament’s international trade committee.
“I’m probably more optimistic now than I was before. It could happen any time soon.”
He said that is because Mr. Harper’s office is playing down the gaps that remain on the main unresolved obstacles to a deal, including access for Canadian pork and beef, drug patents and provincial procurements.
“They are minor issues that should be and could be solved,” Mr. Stastny said.
