Standing Committee on International Trade

Comité permanent du commerce international

For immediate release

Ottawa, December 12, 2018 -

Today, the House of Commons Standing Committee on International Trade presented, in the House of Commons, a report entitled Canada and the Mercosur Countries: A Potential Agreement to Advance Trade Relations.

The report contains six recommendations relating to a potential Canada–Mercosur free trade agreement (FTA). In particular, the recommendations address eliminating both tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade, mitigating any negative impacts of such an FTA on Canada’s firms, ensuring governments’ right to protect artists and cultural producers, resolving investment-related disputes, and prioritizing outcomes that will help to ensure that any benefits of such an FTA are widely shared.

“Canada currently has international trade and investment relations with each of the four Mercosur countries,” said the Honourable Mark Eyking, P.C., M.P., Chair of the Committee. “An FTA could help to develop such relations further, including through enhanced access to the markets of these countries.”

Mr. Eyking concluded: “Implementation of the recommendations in the Committee’s report would help to create new opportunities for Canada’s firms that want to begin to trade – or to increase their trade – with the Mercosur countries. As well, their implementation would help to ensure that a Canada–Mercosur FTA benefits Canadians. Certainly, the Committee hopes that the Government of Canada gives serious and timely consideration to these recommendations.”

The Committee’s report can be accessed on its website.