EU-Canada trade agreement – stakeholders invited to suggest areas for future cooperation

The Commission has officially launched a call for proposals to identify sectors and issues where there is high interest for regulatory cooperation with Canada.

The EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) entered into force provisionally on 21 September 2017. As part of the agreement, the EU and Canada agreed to set up a Regulatory Cooperation Forum. All stakeholders are invited to submit their ideas, including representatives from academia, think tanks, civil society, NGOs, trade unions, businesses and consumer organisations.

The aim of this forum is to cooperate on areas of mutual interest, which in turn can contribute to safer food and better protection for the environment. It also aims at avoiding unnecessary regulatory differences, reducing administrative burden and making trade between the two countries operate more smoothly.

The cooperation in the forum is always voluntary and in no way limits the ability of the EU or Canada to regulate on behalf of their citizens as they see fit.

The Commission would like to stress that proposals in this regard should be forward looking and not duplicate present activities of cooperation covered by other parts of the Agreement.

We would encourage joint submissions from associations and organisations representing different stakeholders from the EU and Canada.

For further details, please see the TRADE website. The deadline for submissions is 16 February 2018

Source: The European Commission