Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement now in effect

The Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement took effect August 15, 2011. This agreement will result in fewer barriers to trade and expanded opportunities for Canadian exporters and investors in a broad range of sectors, including agriculture, mining and financial services.
 
Colombian import tariffs on Canadian beef are scheduled to be reduced to zero over a 12 year period with set amounts of tariff rate duty free quotas growing over that period and eventually providing Canadian beef with unlimited duty free access. Duties on Canadian pork will be phased out over 13 equal annual stages and will be duty free after that. Set amounts of tariff rate quotas shall start at 20 percent duty and phase out to zero within the tariff rate quota in five equal annual stages.
 
The Canadian meat industry is the country’s largest processing sector with some 67,500 employees and gross annual sales of more than $ 21.3 billion. Last year Canada exported more than $1.4 billion of beef and over $2.8 billion of pork to over 150 different countries around the world.