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Minister launches Ireland – Canada Business Association Summit

The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Charlie Flanagan, TD, has welcomed the fact that significant progress has been made in Belgium on the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic & Trade Agreement (CETA). The Belgian Prime Minister, Charles Michel., today confirmed that Belgium will approve the CETA proposals.

Speaking shortly after he launched Ireland - Canada Business Association Summit, Minister Flanagan said:

“I very much welcome Prime Minister Michels announcement that the outstanding issues in Belgium have been resolved and I hope that it signals a rapid conclusion to the CETA deal which is in all of our interests.

“This morning in Dublin I launched the Ireland – Canada Business Association Summit with former Premier of Quebec, Mr Jean Charest, who is of course regarded as the father of CETA and I would like to extend my particular congratulations to him and to all involved in negotiating this historic agreement.

“We hope that CETA will be fully ratified and come into force as soon as possible so that we can all avail of the advantages this confers on EU and Canadian economies.

“CETA is important for Ireland, given the considerable further trade potential between Ireland and Canada which we must exploit. We will see 98% of our bilateral trade liberalised by CETA which will give Irish and Canadian companies a huge boost and a huge competitive advantage in each other’s markets.

“Today’s positive news from Belgium focuses our minds once more on the need for Ireland to expand its trading profile in the aftermath of the UK vote to leave the EU.”

Ends

Press Office
27 October 2016

Notes to Editors

Canada is a G7 economy with a GDP of over €1.3 trillion, with annual trade with Ireland already in excess of € 2.75 billion. Canada is the EU's 12th most important trade partner while the EU ranks as Canada’s second most important partner (after the US). EU-Canada trade in goods was valued at €63.479 billion in 2015, a 6.9% increase on 2014.

Approximately 14,000 Irish citizens moved to Canada each year during the recession, whether on a temporary or more permanent basis. During this period, IEC (International Experience Canada) increased the amount of visas allocated to Irish applicants for working holiday visas, with 10,700 spaces made available in 2014, 2015 and 2016.