By SPA,
Montreal : Canada and the European Union are committed to forging a comprehensive economic partnership, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Friday.
The unfolding global financial crisis makes liberalizing trade between Canada and the EU even more crucial, Harper said after a meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso at the annual Canada-EU Summit in Quebec City, according to a report of DPA.
“Among other things, this means rejecting the frequent tendency in difficult times to turn inward and erect barriers between our economies and our citizens,” Harper said. “Indeed, we must stand against protectionism and work to lower and eliminate barriers.”
The ongoing global meltdown topped the agenda of talks between Harper, Sarkozy and Barosso as they met Friday to launch a process that might eventually lead to an economic partnership between Canada and the EU, similar to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between Canada, the United States and Mexico.
The EU and Canada have agreed to take their relations “to an entirely new level,” Harper said.
“The European Union and Canada have completed a comprehensive economic study and have agreed to define together the formal mandates for negotiating an ambitious, deeper and comprehensive and truly historic economic partnership agreement.”
This will commence as early as possible in 2009, he said.