{"id":77327,"date":"2017-04-28T19:57:41","date_gmt":"2017-04-28T19:57:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/canada-restarts-free-trade-negotiations-with-south-american-trading-bloc.html"},"modified":"2017-04-28T19:57:41","modified_gmt":"2017-04-28T19:57:41","slug":"canada-restarts-free-trade-negotiations-with-south-american-trading-bloc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/political\/canada-restarts-free-trade-negotiations-with-south-american-trading-bloc.html","title":{"rendered":"Canada restarts free trade negotiations with South American trading bloc"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canada’s hectic international trade agenda is about to get even busier, as it takes new steps toward formal free trade negotiations with Mercosur, the trading bloc that includes the key South American markets of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay,\u00a0CBC News has learned.<\/p>\n

A government source, speaking on condition of anonymity, revealed that tomorrow\u00a0the federal government will kick off a\u00a0consultation process\u00a0to help shape Canada’s negotiating position: what it wants to target\u00a0in these large consumer\u00a0markets, and what it might be willing to give up in order to make that happen.<\/p>\n

Canada held exploratory talks with Mercosur\u00a0under the previous Conservative government in 2011-12. But talks have been\u00a0dormant since then.<\/p>\n

According to figures from Global Affairs Canada,\u00a0the four members of\u00a0Mercosur had a combined gross domestic product in 2016 of $3.2 trillion\u00a0and a population of 260 million. Bilateral merchandise trade between Canada and the members of the trading bloc totalled\u00a0nearly $8.1 billion in 2016.<\/p>\n

When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited Argentina in November<\/a>, he and President Mauricio Macri spoke of wanting to ramp up trade between their countries. A key trade barrier blocking Canadian pork imports was lifted during that visit.<\/p>\n

Agricultural commodities and other resource industries, including lumber, are expected to figure significantly in the talks. But some of the negotiations may be tense, given past disputes between Canada and Brazil over beef and the aerospace industry.<\/p>\n

\"Question<\/p>\n

International Trade Minister Fran\u00e7ois-Philippe Champagne is kicking off consultations to help shape Canada’s negotiating position. Government officials were in Argentina earlier this month to prepare for the negotiations. (Adrian Wyld\/Canadian Press)<\/p>\n

Technical delegations met in Argentina, the country currently serving as chair of the group,\u00a0earlier this month to help assemble the framework for formal negotiations.<\/p>\n

A South American media report said delegates exchanged\u00a0information on\u00a0their respective goods and services markets, non-tariff barriers, animal and plant\u00a0sanitary regulations, investments, government procurement, labour issues and environmental regulations.<\/p>\n

Diversification strategy<\/h2>\n

Canadian free trade negotiations with the largest economic players in South America would come at a strategically significant time.<\/p>\n

Major trading partners of the United States, including\u00a0countries involved in these negotiations, are trying to manage\u00a0uncertainty caused by\u00a0recent moves by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration.\u00a0Diversifying into\u00a0significant markets beyond the U.S. helps insulate an economy from protectionist moves\u00a0in Washington.<\/p>\n

Canada has also emerged as a key player in\u00a0talks\u00a0that have emerged after\u00a0the U.S. pulled out of the 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That group of now 11 countries, with others possibly to follow, is now called\u00a0the High-Level Asia Pacific Dialogue.<\/p>\n

International Trade Minister\u00a0Fran\u00e7ois-Philippe Champagne has invited the countries’ chief negotiators to meetings in Toronto next Tuesday and Wednesday, as they\u00a0evaluate what parts of the previous TPP agreement could be transferred or renegotiated between the reconfigured group.<\/p>\n

Now Canada could\u00a0be in free trade negotiations with countries on both the Atlantic and the Pacific side of South America.<\/p>\n

Venezuela was originally part of Mercosur, but its membership was suspended in December.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/p>\n

Article source: http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/politics\/mercosur-free-trade-talks-canada-1.4090441?cmp=rss<\/a>\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Canada’s hectic international trade agenda is about to get even busier, as it takes new steps toward formal free trade negotiations with Mercosur, the trading bloc that includes the key South American markets of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay,\u00a0CBC News has learned. A government source, speaking on condition of anonymity, revealed that tomorrow\u00a0the federal government […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":77328,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-77327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political","tag-political"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}