Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently announced that an agreement was formed between Canada and the European Union (EU) to free the movement of goods, investment, services and labour. This movement would challenge many Canadians businesses to further expand their trading routes overseas. The purpose of this agreement is to open markets and drop most import taxes by 98% on various merchandises (i.e. food, clothes, cars, etc). This formed treaty is called the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA). This agreement allows Canada to access more than half of the world's economy. Prime Minister Stephan Harper announced that "...this is a big deal. Indeed, this is the biggest deal our country has ever made...", while signing the agreement papers in Brussels. Before this agreement can become a law, it must be analyzed and approved of by the government. As the economy thought this agreement may be beneficial towards their markets, CBC recently published an article, titled Quebec cheese makers furious over Euro trade deal, shows the disagreement of Canadian dairy farmers and how the signed contract does not support their industries.
Currently, Canada's Tariff Rate Quotas(TRQ) allow 20,412 tonnes of cheese to be traded across the globe and are free from tariff taxes. Two-thirds of this trade is already given to the EU, therefore the European Union own a large proportion of the Canadian cheese markets. If the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement still continues, they will claim another 7.5% of Canada's cheese market; a total of 31,971 tonnes of cheese. If CETA claims the extra 7.5% of Canada's cheese market, this means terminating the EU's possesion of cheese markets. A decreased change in quota will eventually result in local Canadian businesses shutting down, therefore leads to many unemployed workers. This unemployment will cause a major decrease in dairy market industry productions.
Once this treaty becomes official, Canadian dairy industries will be granted restricted access to European Union markets. These Canadian dairy systems strongly supports our local economy by making safe and high quality milk products. When the agreement between Canada and the EU is finalized, it will also tragically cause local dairy economies to lose millions of dollars. Incomes will be taken from Canadian dairy farmers and their communities and given to the European industries. Canadian think that this massive decrease in farming incomes was the worst it was going to get, but it will also take away many jobs and economic developments from their communities. As more tragic outcomes for Canadian farms follow, Wally Smith, president of
