Canada is leading the discussion following Prime Minister Mark Carney‘s call last month for middle powers to resist trade war coercion. This initiative began shortly after Donald Trump threatened European allies with trade penalties if they did not support his attempt to acquire Greenland from Denmark.
Ottawa is “championing efforts to build a bridge” between the EU and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), creating a trading bloc of 1.5 billion people, Carney told global leaders in Davos.
The EU and the CPTPP are scheduled to begin talks this year aimed at integrating the supply chains of member nations, including Canada, Japan, Mexico, and Australia, with Europe. The talks focus on reaching an agreement on rules of origin, allowing manufacturers to trade goods and parts more seamlessly across the blocs.
Earlier, Carney’s personal representative to the European Union, John Hannaford, was dispatched to Singapore to solicit the views of regional leaders on a potential trade deal.
A Canadian government official indicated that progress is being made and that discussions with other international partners have been fruitful.
“The work is definitely coming along. We’ve had very fruitful discussions on it with other partners around the world,” the official told POLITICO.
The EU and CPTPP resolved to combine their economic forces last November, pushing back on the fragmentation of free trade.
Business groups, including the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry, support the rules-of-origin deal, pushing Brussels and London to move forward.
Internal discussions within trade blocs are ongoing among all relevant actors, according to Klemens Kober, director of trade policy, EU customs and transatlantic relations at the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DIHK).
Kober stated that harmonising and simplifying rules could benefit German companies, especially given the EU’s existing free trade deals with many CPTPP members, suggesting that cumulating origin between different FTAs would be very useful.