Brussels, 30 October 2016 – After 7 years of comprehensive negotiations, CETA, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between Canada and the EU has been signed by the Council today. The EU wine industry welcomes this positive step and urges the European Parliament to give its consent for an effective implementation of the agreement in early 2017.
With more than € 780 million EU wine export in 2015, Canada is a priority market for the wine sector. In spite of its good export performance to the Canadian market, European wine continues to face a number of trade barriers and discriminatory treatments in Canada. CETA provides a unique opportunity to put an end to these practices and level the playing field for EU wine, offering further growth prospect for their exports to Canada.
“The EU wine sector expects several benefits from CETA. In addition to removing customs duties and strengthening the protection of EU wines Geographical Indications, CETA will provide new tools to tackle unfair practices discriminating EU imports adopted by the Canadian Provinces” said Jean-Marie Barillère, President of CEEV. “Once implemented, CETA will increase and improve EU wine exports, with a net gain in growth and jobs for the European economy.”
The European Parliament must give its consent before CETA can be provisionally implemented. In face of strong competition from the USA (the first wine supplier of Canada in 2014, for the first time), Australia and Chile, CEEV urges the Parliament to give green light to the agreement.
“It is critical that CETA be implemented in early 2017. In a context of extreme worldwide competition, it will be difficult to maintain our impressive export figures to Canada as our competitors are going faster than the EU in negotiating and implementing trade agreements” said Ignacio Sánchez Recarte, Secretary General of CEEV.
Facts & Figures
Expected benefits of CETA for the EU wine industry:
- Elimination of custom duties at the entry into force of the agreement;
- Decrease of unfair practices: Canadian provincial Liquor Boards will have to remove practices that distort competition in favour of domestic produced wines and not to develop commercial activities abroad with taxes levied on European exports;
- Non-discriminatory tax environment by providing improvements to the complex cost of service arrangements operated by provincial Liquor Boards and a basis to eliminate tax discrimination between European wine sold in Liquor Boards and local wine sold through tax-free private channels;
- Strengthen the protection of Geographical Indication by incorporating and improving the Wine & Spirits Agreement of 2004. This Agreement grants protection for EU wines and foresees the possibility for other EU wines to be recognized in the future;
- Introduction of a dispute settlement mechanism which could be used to put an end to ever expanding discriminatory practices against EU wines.
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Note to Editors
Comité Européen des Entreprises Vins (CEEV – www.ceev.eu) represents the wine companies in the industry and trade in the European Union: still wines, aromatised wines, sparkling wines, liqueur wines and other vine products. It brings together 24 national organisations. With more than 7.000 companies, mainly SMEs, and more than 200.000 direct jobs in the EU, its members produce and market the vast majority of quality European wines, with and without a geographical indication, and account for over 90% of European wine exports.
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