SEAFOODNEWS.COM by John Sackton — Aug 25, 2014 — The Canadian – European free trade deal will be signed in Ottawa on Sept. 25th.
The full technical text, a 1500 page document, was leaked in a German publication a few weeks ago, and appears to conform with the public summary that has been published.
Speaking in PEI, Fisheries Minister Gail Shea said the lobster industry could be helped by the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between Canada and Europe.
She says CETA may open up many new markets for P.E.I. companies.
"The lobster industry, it's a market of supply and demand, so, we as a government are working on the demand side opening trade agreements around the world to create more markets, but the industry has to soon step up and do that marketing," said Shea.
"And they are doing that in talking to many companies, they have diversified their markets a lot over the last 10 years."
According to a summary of the deal, 95.5% of current seafood duties will disappear on the day the agreement comes into force. After the deal is signed, it still has to be approved by both both the Canadian and the European parliments before taking effect.
When it does, the following tariff reductions will apply to Canadian Seafood:
• immediate tariff elimination includes:
»» live lobster – current duties at 8%
»» frozen lobster – current duties from 6% and 16%
»» frozen scallops – current duties at 8%
»» frozen shrimp – current duties at 12%
»» cooked and peeled shrimp in retail packages – current duties from a rate of 20%
»» fresh or chilled hake (Whiting) – current duties at 15%
»» dried and salted cod – current duties at 13%
»» frozen herring – current duties at 15%
»» frozen mackerel – current duties at 20%
»» fresh or chilled halibut – current duties at 15%
»» salmon – from rates of up to 15%
»» processed salmon – current duties at 5.5%
»» snow crab – from rates up to 8%
»» fresh, chilled and frozen mussels – from rates up to 20%
»» dogfish – from a rate of 6%
IN addition, there are provisions for duty-free transitional TRQs (Tariff reduction quotas) with no end-use requirements for:
»» processed shrimp (two tariff lines) – 23,000 tonnes – current duties at 20%
»» frozen fillets of cod (one tariff line) – 1,000 tonnes – current duties at 7.5%
Also Canada will get non-tariff quotas for the following products produced in Canada from imported materials:
• prepared or preserved salmon: 3,000 tonnes
• cooked and frozen lobster: 2,000 tonnes
• prepared and preserved sardines: 200 tonnes
• processed shrimp: 5,000 tonnes
For a number of years Canada has been diversifying its seafood markets to reduce its dependency on the US. The trade agreement will accelerate this process, and bring European buyers agressively into competion for products like lobster, crab, scallops and mussels.
Giving Canadian producers an 8%, 10% or even 20% cost reduction for sales to the EU will allow them to sell more products outside the US, and consequently receive higher prices for products sold here as they will be less subject to excess inventory and gluts.
This story originally appeared on Seafood.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.