Frjáls verslun milli Íslands og Kanada

Ég les svo sjaldan viðskiptafréttirnar að ég hlýt að hafa alveg misst af þessu í fréttunum. En mér finnst auðvitað frábært að heyra að kominn sé samningur milli Kanada og EFTA um frjálsa verslun. Ég vona að það leiði til þess að meira af íslenskum mat verði selt í Kanada.

Hér kemur annars fréttin af heimasíðu kanadíska utanríkisráðuneytisins. Ég nenni ekki að þýða hana yfir á íslensku því ég kann lítið í viðskiptaensku og myndi ábyggilega klúðra einhverju og fá svo yfir mig hafsjó af athugasemdum frá viðskiptafræðingum. Með því að skella þessu beint á firra ég mig allri ábyrgð.

Regional and Bilateral Initiatives

Canada - European Free Trade Association (EFTA)

Free Trade Agreement Negotiations

On June 7, 2007, Canada and the EFTA countries announced the conclusion of free trade agreement negotiations (See the June 7, 2007 News Release and Backgrounders). For more information, see Canada-EFTA Fast Facts.

The purpose of Canada’s free trade agenda is to enhance its economic prosperity and provide the foundation for sustainable economic, social and cultural development. To remain internationally competitive, Canada must ensure that its exporters and investors have competitive terms of access to international markets. A free trade agreement (FTA) with the EFTA countries (Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein) would further stimulate interest in doing business with Canada.

As Canada's first trans-Atlantic free trade agreement, an FTA with the EFTA countries will provide a strategic platform for expanding commercial ties with these countries in particular, and the European Union in general. It will offer advantages in key European markets ahead of competitors such as the United States, and will put Canada on an equal footing with competitors - such as Mexico, Chile, Korea and the European Union (EU) - who already have FTAs with EFTA.

The EFTA countries are developed, modern economies that offer significant potential markets for competitive Canadian exporters. If the combined EFTA nations were treated as one, this group would place as Canada's 8th largest merchandise export destination. Norway and Switzerland are ranked as Canada's 13th and 19th most important trading partners in terms of merchandise exports.