Brussels, 24/02/2011 (Agence Europe) - Canada is keeping its negotiations on a free trade deal with the EU separate from the tar sands dispute.
Diplomatic sources quoted by Reuters say that EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht and EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard are preparing a complaint to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) about the import of fuel from the tar sands of Canada, which holds the biggest reserves in the world of this after Saudi Arabia. After putting the question on the back-burner last year while talks continued between the EU and Canada over a full economic and trade deal (Complete Economic and Trade Agreement, or CETA), the departments of the two commissioners have been reviewing over recent months the reliability of the way of calculating the carbon footprint of fuels and have decided that fuel from tar sands is carbon intensive. The EU has suggested amendments to a directive on fuel quality which seek to reduce the amount of carbon given off by transport by 10% over the next decade. This may lead to oil from tar sands being treated differently from normal oil.
Canada does not actually export any oil to the European continent but the EU says the issue is important because it wants to ensure that any trade deals meet international environment standards, explained a lawyer quoted by Presse Canadienne.
As soon as the news was published by Reuters, the Canadian government immediately denied threatening to withdraw from the free trade talks with the EU. Canada's Trade Minister Peter Van Loan said that EU action against tar sands imports were not the same as the CETA talks and the two would be treated separately. Canada and the EU are working together to solve the tar sands issue outside the free trade talks, explained Van Loan in an email published by Presse Canadienne. (E.H./transl.fl)