Strategic Europe continues its Capitals Series exploring how EU foreign policy is viewed by major non-European countries. We have asked each of our contributors to give a frank assessment of their country’s relations with the EU and rank five key issues in order of their importance in those relations. This week, the spotlight is on Canada.
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At a time when Canadian officials and policymakers are scrambling to make sense of the new U.S. administration’s rhetoric and actions on trade, immigration, and security, Ottawa cannot but view the EU as a relatively more stable and dependable partner. Moreover, EU leaders’ general support for open borders and the existing system of global governance is in line with the vision and priorities of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government.
Canada and the EU have recently signed two important agreements. The first is the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), which should enter into force in summer 2017. The second is the Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA), which sets the principles and objectives of Canadian-EU cooperation for the foreseeable future. A news release by the Office of the Canadian Prime Minister described the SPA in the following terms:
The SPA lays out a strategic direction for stronger future relations and collaboration between Canada, the EU, and its member states at both the bilateral and multilateral level. The SPA will improve cooperation in important areas such as energy, environment and climate change, migration and peaceful pluralism, counter-terrorism and international peace and security, and effective multilateralism.
Of these two agreements, CETA is the most important for Canada, because it will likely have the most direct impact on Canadians’ livelihoods. With CETA, Canadian firms will have mostly free access to the second-largest economy in the world after the United States. The accord should attract more investments from European firms into Canada and is expected to bring significant extra revenues for the Canadian economy. Already, the EU is Canada’s second-largest economic partner after the United States.
CETA is also important politically for Canada (and for the EU), because it is hoped that the deal will serve as a model for future bilateral and multilateral trade negotiations. Both Canada and the EU see CETA as the new defining standard for international trade and economic agreements.
CETA’s next challenge is implementation. When the agreement enters into force, businesses on both sides of the Atlantic will immediately be able to take advantage of the elimination of tariff lines on a large number of goods traded between Canada and the EU. However, a number of obstacles to trade and investment will remain, notably those related to standards, rules, regulations, and procedures. Removing them will require a high degree of cooperation not only between Canada and the EU but also among the various levels of government in each jurisdiction.
Ottawa remains committed to the international security order built after World War II and enshrined in NATO. Membership of the alliance and participation in its security and defense mechanisms are central components of Canada’s security and defense polices. At a time when Washington is sending mixed signals about its commitment to NATO, Canada and the EU share a common interest in upholding an alliance that has contributed to the maintenance of a relatively peaceful international order for almost seventy years.
A sign of Canada’s commitment to European security is Ottawa’s decision to send a total of 450 troops to be stationed in Latvia from June 2017 as a deterrent against Russian agitations in the region. Canada will lead a battalion of between 1,200 and 1,500 soldiers from Albania, Italy, Poland, Slovenia, and Spain as part of NATO’s enhanced forward presence in Central and Eastern Europe.
Canada and the EU have similar approaches to critical issues such as Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, and the fight against the self-proclaimed Islamic State. Thorough the SPA, Canada and the EU have an opportunity to reinforce judicial and law-enforcement cooperation aimed at fighting organized crime and corruption, terrorism, illicit drugs, and cybercrime.
Furthermore, Canada has regularly contributed to the EU’s Common Security and Defense Policy missions and operations and has actively participated in several of them, including the EU Police Mission (EUPOL) in Afghanistan and the EU Advisory Mission in Ukraine for civilian security sector reform.
Climate change is another file of crucial importance for Canada and the EU. Since his election in October 2015, Trudeau has emphasized the importance, for the Canadian government, of protecting the environment and combating climate change through both national and international initiatives.
With the administration of President Donald Trump faltering on the U.S. commitment to the Paris Agreement on climate change, Canada and the EU need to work closely together to provide leadership and ensure that the accord does not collapse. European Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy Miguel Arias Cañete visited Ottawa in early March to meet Canadian Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna to do just that, and together they hosted a roundtable discussion with stakeholders to foster closer Canada-EU relations on the climate change file.
Canada and the EU share fundamental values: a commitment to democracy and the rule of law as well as a focus on the importance of human rights and social protection. Both partners have benefited from and thrived thanks to the international order set up after World War II, characterized by the creation of a number of multilateral institutions that regulate relations between states. Today more than ever, these shared values and interests should constitute the basis for stronger partnership and enhanced cooperation across the Atlantic.
Costanza Musu and Patrick Leblond are associate professors in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa.
Comments(2)
It is a very rosy article; a reality check is needed. The authors present CETA as a major achievement, but it takes time to assess the effects; the ISDS clause attached to it is understandable, but is usually open to abuses. There are no CETA numbers in the article and in reality the various savings are not that sizeable. Numbers are conspicuously absent when the EU is scored as the second largest economic partner for Canada, as the real volume is a fraction of the US one. Anyway, good luck in this endeavor, and hopefully no sands oil end up in other place than the Keystone pipeline, so the cooperation in climate change is real. The authors are mostly wrong when they venture in military matters. The force deployed in Latvia is a tripwire, it is meant to mobilize the public opinion in various NATO countries against Russia in general. If hostilities erupt there, soldiers from many NATO members will be killed or injured and this guarantees that the Article 5 will be invoked and NATO will be at war with Russia. The general expectation is that the US will do most of the fighting, and of course pay for it. The tragic reality is that the war will quickly become nuclear. It is not clear how many nuclear explosions the planet can absorb without total destruction, but the survivors of the initial exchange will not be in Europe or Asiatic Russia. The authors forget to mention the huge ERI commitment made by the Obama administration in her last hours: thousands of soldiers, 3.5 trillion (borrowed!) dollars for 2017, lots of military hardware (even the wealthy Norway got some). In terms of nuclear weaponry 1 trillion was committed for the next 30 years (will be probably triple). The present administration will probably add to these commitments, and we’ll pay for it, as always, while being criticized it is not enough. What the authors missed completely is that NATO was actually defeated in Afghanistan. It is hard to believe, but NATO followed in defeat Alexander the Great, the Mongols, the British Empire and the Soviet Union. This should have been a major topic in the French elections and even a major reason against Brexit. This is where Canada and the EU could deploy their troops and fight this time until victory the Taliban, and even pay for it (with US help, of course). It might take millions of soldiers and years of fighting, followed by years of nation building. In the near future NATO could be at war on multiple fronts, just read the news – are you ready to join the US?
Canada and Europe can get from each other what each formally got from America under Democratic Party Leadership from Franklin Roosevelt through Barac Obama. ORDER!
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