Ottawa, July 15, 2015 – On news that the Government of Canada has completed a trade liberalization deal between Canada and the Ukraine, Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance (CAFTA) President Brian Innes issued the following statement:

“As the voice of Canadian agriculture and agri-food exporters, CAFTA continues to express strong support for ambitious free-trade agreements that achieve comprehensive market access opportunities for agriculture.

Our members support the opportunities created by free-trade agreements to boost trade, production and increase competitiveness by eliminating import tariffs and other non-tariff barriers.

Canada is a nation built on trade, and increasing exports of our agriculture and agri-food products directly benefits the farmers, producers, processors and exporters across Canada and the 500,000 Canadians membership employ.

Free-trade agreements such as the agreement with Ukraine will help Canadians involved in our globally competitive agri-food export sector that exports half of our beef production, 65 per cent of our malt barley, two-thirds of our pork, almost 75 per cent of our wheat and 90 per cent of our canola.”

CAFTA is a coalition of national and regional organizations that support a more open and fair international trading environment for agriculture and agri-food. CAFTA’s members include producer organizations, processors, marketers and exporters from the major trade dependent sectors in Canada. Together, these sectors produce almost 80 per cent of Canada’s agriculture and agri-food exports, conduct about $50 billion in business annually and directly employ close to 500,000 Canadians.

For further information, contact:

Claire Citeau
Executive Director, CAFTA
cciteau@cafta.org
613-560-0500