Abstract
Signed in 1976, the EU-Canada relationship was the first bilateral agreement that the EU signed with an industrialised third country. Modest strengthening of the ties was achieved with the 2004 EU-Canada Partnership Agenda. Negotiations towards a fully-fledged free trade agreement were in the works at this time, but were suspended in 2006. The EU-Canada strategic partnership agreement (SPA) and the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) did not materialise until more than a decade later, in 2016. To assess this process, the chapter seeks to understand the role of governance structures of both partners and the strategic opportunity that came out of the agreement. To answer this question, the paper looks at four time periods. In so doing, it explores the origins of the EU-Canada agreement, how the EU-Canada relationship changed over time, and examines how a more profound strategic partnership came about when it did. In its analysis, it considers institutional, domestic and geopolitical factors. It briefly speculates about the possible future of this partnership.
This chapter is an expanded version of a short journal article published in the Australia and New Zealand Journal of European Studies (February 2020). An earlier version of this chapter was presented at the International Workshop Jean Monnet Network on EU-Canada Relations: The EU and Canada in Dialogue ‘New Opportunities for the EU-Canada Strategic Partnership’, 8 November 2019, TU Darmstadt. The author thanks Natalia Chaban, Fengan Jiang (Richard), Michèle Knodt, Sharon Pardo, Laura Ferreira-Pereira, Godelieve Quisthoudt-Rowohl, Antoine Rayroux, Gordon S. Smith, and Michael Smith for comments on an earlier version of this chapter. The usual disclaimer applies.
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- 1.
For simplicity, I use ‘European Union’ or ‘EU’ to refer to the actual EU as well as to the earlier ‘European Communities’ or ‘European Community’.
- 2.
Council of the European Union (2003) ‘A Secure Europe in a better world’. Brussels 8 December, 15895/03, PESC 787. About Canada it literally mentions: ‘In particular we should look to develop strategic partnerships, with Japan, China, Canada and India, as well as with all those who share our goals and values, and are prepared to act in their support.’ For a discussion of the ESS see inter alia Bailes (2005).
- 3.
https://pm.gc.ca/en/news/statements/2016/10/30/eu-canada-summit-joint-declaration. CETA is a large treaty. It contains 30 chapters, some protocols, annexes, reservations and counts a total of about 2250 pages (in the English language). It is also produced in the official languages of the EU which means that the total text is more than 50,000 pages.
- 4.
To deal with its Balance of Payments issues, on 15 August 1971 the US ended convertibility of dollars into gold. At this time, it also raised 10% tariffs on goods coming into the US. Despite a request from the Canadian government, it did not give Canada an exemption. The Canadian government responded by considering its options (see also Croci and Tossutti 2007).
- 5.
The Third Option was formally dropped in 1980 (Mace and Hervouet 1989).
- 6.
Mahant (1985: 285) reports that the ‘Semi-Annual’ or ‘High levels’ meetings started to take place already before the 1976 namely, since the 1972 informal Canada-European Community Agreement although the meetings did not take place twice a year in every year (both in 1974 and 1977 only one such meeting took place).
- 7.
In November 1990, a Canada-EC Joint Declaration was signed by Prime Minister Mulroney and Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti as his country was holding rotating presidency of the EC at that time. The declaration states that it builds on the ‘privileged relationship’ created by the 1976 agreement and a 1988 arrangement for a ‘political dialogue’ (Pentland 1991: 139) and states a number of common values goals ranging from democracy, peace and prosperity, security, market economy, to closer economic, scientific and cultural cooperation. It also institutionalises some consultative mechanisms by spelling out ‘regular meetings’ of the leaders of both Canada and the EC, and bi-annual meetings of EC and Canadian officials at a host of levels from very high level to the level of representatives and the respective parliaments (see Pentland 1991: 139).
- 8.
The Canadian government also started a ‘European Challenge’ campaign (to inform Canadian business about the EU single market, established a ‘Task Force on Europe 1992’, and set up a ‘European Trade Policy Strategy’ in Brussels (see Hampson and Maule 1991: 17–18).
- 9.
Evan Potter lists various other organisations in which Canada and the EU: ‘…the Group of Seven (G-7), the Commonwealth, La Francophonie, the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO), the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, peacekeeping missions, development assistance, international financial institutions …’ (and this list is not even exhaustive as both parties also encountered one another in numerous other international missions where both parties had a role, such as peace keeping missions (Potter 1999: 8).
- 10.
Gordon S. Smith, who was involved in these fish-wars as deputy minister of Foreign Affairs, characterised Canada’s stance as forceful. He said it was necessary to do something (personal interview 11 December 2019).
- 11.
‘Agreement for Scientific and Technological Cooperation Between Canada and the European Community’, E102117 - CTS 1996 No. 24 https://www.treaty-accord.gc.ca/text-texte.aspx?id=102117.
- 12.
Agreement for the Conclusion of Negotiations Between Canada and the European Community Under Article XXIV:6, E100682 - CTS 1996 No. 43 (25 July 1996), https://www.treaty-accord.gc.ca/text-texte.aspx?id=100682.
- 13.
At this time, the desk officer in the Commission’s Directorate I (DG External Relations) responsible for Canada was also responsible for the United States and Australia. Evan Potter (1999: 197) argued that Canada benefitted from being part of that officer’s limited resources. Furthermore, during this time the bilateral relations between Canada and the United Kingdom saw a gradual move towards valuing the Canada-Germany relationship, in light of the ongoing enlargement in the EU (Potter 1999: 247).
- 14.
‘Agreement between the European Union and Canada establishing a framework for the participation of Canada in the European Union crisis management operations’, Official Journal of the EU L 315/21 1.12.2005 https://www.europarl.europa.eu/cmsdata/121887/Agreement_participation_crisis_management_operations_EU-Canada_2005.pdf.
- 15.
- 16.
The Commission Communication on EU-Canada Relations of of 13 May 2003 states: ‘Also, the picture is complicated by the ongoing Convention on the future of the EU, which is likely to change the landscape of the CFSP. It might be appropriate to wait for the results of the Convention and the IGC, as well as enlargement, before launching a procedure to bring the legal framework governing EU-Canada relations fully up to date’ (Commission of the EC 2003: 13).
- 17.
‘A Global Strategy for the EU’s Foreign and Security Policy’, June 2016 (https://eeas.europa.eu/sites/eeas/files/eugs_review_web_0.pdf). This document (on page 37) explicitly mentions Canada and transatlantic trade agreements and the broader security agenda in the following way: “With the US, the EU will strive for a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Like the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with Canada, TTIP demonstrates the transatlantic commitment to shared values and signals our willingness to pursue an ambitious rules-based trade agenda. On the broader security agenda, the US will continue to be our core partner. The EU will deepen cooperation with the US and Canada on crisis management, counter-terrorism, cyber, migration, energy and climate action”. See also ‘Implementation Plan on Security and Defence’, November 2016 (this document does not mention Canada at all).
- 18.
On Canada-US exceptionalism see Barry (1979). During the period under study the US also started to orient itself a bit more on the newly emerging powers in the world, such as Brazil, China, India, and so on. On the EU-US strategic partnership see Michael Smith (this volume).
- 19.
http://eeas.europa.eu/archives/docs/canada/docs/partnership_agenda_en.pdf. There were numerous issues that overlapped between the SPA agreement and the 7-paged general document called “EU-Canada Partnership Agenda” concluded to at the EU-Canada Summit in Ottawa on 18 March 2004. It featured broad headers (with various subheaders) such as (A) Advancing International Security and Effective Multilateralism; (B) Advancing Global Economic Prosperity; (C) Advancing Cooperation on Issues of Justice and Home Affairs; (D) Cooperating on Global and Regional Challenges, and (E) Fostering People to People Links. Many of the themes mentioned in the 2004 document in one form or other reappear in the 2016 EU-Canada SPA.
- 20.
It is worth noting, however, that the SPAs that the EU has signed with other countries, such as Brazil and China, in recent years, also cover a broad range of issues.
- 21.
Again, this is largely true for SPAs with other countries; for a discussion of the SPAs that the EU has signed with these other countries, see Cottey on the EU-China SPA (this volume) and Ferreira-Pereira on the EU-Brazil SPA (also in this volume).
- 22.
More generally, the EU was starting to examine different strategic partnerships with major new powers around the globe such as Brazil, India, China and South Africa (Knodt et al. 2015).
- 23.
The situation in Belgium is that in total seven parliaments need to sign and then to ratify for the treaty to pass: the two chambers of the bicameral parliament of Belgium, the five regional parliaments and two language community parliaments. The Walloon parliament upset the process by voting against it in mid-October 2016. After hefty negotiations, the Walloons approved it two weeks later. Ratification is another step that has at the time of writing not yet been completed neither in Belgium nor in the EU at large. In May 2020 in total 14 member states have given the Council notification of ratification, with Luxembourg having completed the parliamentary approval process in May 2020 and will give notification shortly.
- 24.
Interview with the author with a member of the Dutch senate, video-phonecall, 17 June 2020.
- 25.
European ratification is kept up to date on this website: https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/documents-publications/treaties-agreements/agreement/?id=2016017. In addition, the United Kingdom had also already ratified the agreement on 8 November 2018—well before leaving the EU.
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Verdun, A. (2021). The EU-Canada Strategic Partnership: Challenges and Opportunities. In: Ferreira-Pereira, L.C., Smith, M. (eds) The European Union's Strategic Partnerships. The European Union in International Affairs. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66061-1_6
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