Brussels, 10/07/2007 (Agence Europe) - One month after the EU/Canada summit in Berlin, which gave the go-ahead for a joint study to assess how appropriate it is to have greater integration between the EU and Canada (EUROPE 9439), Jean Charest, the prime minister of Quebec, gave his views during an interview with the French daily, Le Figaro, on Tuesday. He pressed for the process of transatlantic trade liberalisation to be speeded up. Mr Charest stressed the importance of “new relations” between Canada and Europe, for which Quebec and France, in his view, are the driving forces. Canada can be a “strategic partner” for the EU, he said, mainly because it is the “front door” for European exporters to the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA). “This new relationship would allow us, in a second stage, to develop an understanding that would more specifically affect the mobility of labour and the reconnaissance of proficiency” Mr Charest went on to say. Speaking through the press, the prime minister of Quebec has several times in recent months promoted new EU/Canada relations based on the removal of trade barriers, tariff but also non-tariff and regulatory barriers. “We Canadians and Europeans are fighting the same fight for competitiveness compared to the emerging countries: if we want to modernise our economies and avoid relocation, then barriers must be removed”, Mr Charest stressed before concluding that “in order to avoid disputes in future” such as that in 2006 which opposed the Canadian Bombardier group and the French Alstom group over a contract for the Montreal metro, he is quite willing to include public procurement in a transatlantic agreement. (eh)