On 12 March Minister-president Geert Bourgeois met with the Canadian Minister for Trade, Mr. François-Philippe Champagne. Flanders has always shown itself a vocal advocate for the CETA trade agreement between Canada and the European Union. The Minister-president confirmed once more why CETA is this important. Per capita, Flanders exports three times more than Germany. One in three jobs is related to international trade. An open Flemish economy thrives on freer international trade. In this perspective, CETA is an important contribution to facilitating trade between Canada and the European Union. And figures prove this. Flanders’ exports to Canada equalled 2.19 billion Euros in 2017, a 23 percent increase compared to 2016. Imports mounted to 2.6 billion Euros. Minister-president Bourgeois: “Thanks to the recently concluded CETA free trade agreement between the EU and Canada, a model for the whole world, these figures will only increase more.”
On 15 March Minister-president Bourgeois met with the Canadian Minister for Transport, Mr. Marc Garneau in Montreal. Both meetings took place in the margin of the official programme of the Belgian State Visit to Canada which was held from 11 to 16 March 2018.
