In an interview with the Canadian Press, Minister of International Trade Peter Van Loan said that Canada is “looking for something that is deeper and broader than NAFTA, and this is with the world’s largest economy.”

Canada and the European Union are now in their third round of talks and two more are planned. If all goes well, Minister Van Loan hopes to see Ottawa sign a comprehensive economic and trade agreement (CETA) with the EU by the end of 2011.

According to Canada’s chief negotiator, Steve Verheul, the talks are going well, partly because everybody knows each other.

At Europe’s insistence, the negotiations include representatives of the Canadian provinces. The talks cover everything that can be put on the bargaining table.

According to Scott Sinclair, a researcher for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, the European agenda includes doing away with Canada’s supply management system in dairy and poultry and the Canadian Wheat Board.

In return, he thinks that Canada would get to send more raw materials to Europe.

Not so, says former Liberal cabinet minister John Manley, who now heads the Canadian Council of Chief Executives. He thinks that Canada needs to diversify its international trade and that a deal with Europe, with an economy in many ways similar to Canada’s, could bring major benefits.

The Canadian government estimates that Canada’s gross domestic product could grow by $12 billion by 2014 if a satisfactory deal is struck. In 2008, Canadian exports to Europe added up to $52 billion, a modest amount given the size of the European market.

Based on a Canadian Press text published on April 27, 2010