EU trade negotiator says CETA will be good for the EU, Poland

There are as many as 2,000 firms in Poland that are involved in exporting products to Canada, said the deputy director for trade, and the EU’s chief negotiator during CETA’s negotiation phase last year, Mauro Petriccione. He spoke to Michał Zabłocki of the Polish press on Sunday. In spite of this, there is some anxiety about the upcoming trade agreement, especially regarding the trade of agricultural products. However, Petriccione estimates that, because the share of Canadian agricultural products that are especially important in the EU market will continue to be so low, it is unlikely that changes in prices will be felt be consumers. “Canadian exports of beef […] should be 0.5 percent of overall EU consumption, and in the past, we have seen that this amount had virtually no impact on prices in Europe,” he said. He also said that he expects growth for European – and Polish – companies exporting to Canada. “There are many EU companies that export goods to Canada, Canadians are engaged in export to Europe, with the same investments. We expect growth,” he added. Access to the EU market for Canadian beef and pork producers meant that Canada had to agree to some concessions with some priority agricultural products originating in the EU. “This opening means increasing our exports of dairy products by 130 percent. Moreover, subject to market protection, the [Canadian] market is very attractive because it has a very high price. Limited concessions still protect the Canadian side, but for us [the terms of the trade deal] have a very high economic value,” he added. Poland, for instance, currently exports foodstuffs ranging from chocolate to hard liquor and beer, but currently, prices in Canadian shops are, typically, between 15 and 25 percent higher than of similar Canadian and other North American products. The elimination of tariffs is expected to greatly reduce these prices for Canadian consumers. On Tuesday, the international trade committee of the European Parliament supported the approval of the EU-Canada free trade agreement CETA, which had been formally agreed-upon by the two parties on October 30, 2016. Parliament is to vote on ratification of the agreement in February.