February 24, 2012

Ottawa is consulting Canadians on options to enhance trade with Mercosur

Canada's Minister of International Trade, Ed Fast, announced last June that Canada and the members of Mercosur - Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay - were moving forward with exploratory discussions to enhance their trade relationship.

The Federal Government is now launching a public consultation process to allow all interested stakeholders an opportunity to provide comments and advice regarding how trade with Mercosur could be improved.

Created in 1991, Mercosur represents a market of nearly 250 million consumers and accounts for almost three quarters of all economic activity in South America.

Mercosur offers a number of trade opportunities, particularly in the areas of aerospace, life sciences, infrastructure, information and communications technology, clean technology, mining, and oil and gas.

In 2010, bilateral merchandise trade between Canada and the Mercosur countries reached $7.9 billion, which represents an increase of about 150 percent from 10 years earlier.

For information on the consultation please see the Canada Gazette Notice.