Question Period Note: Modernized Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement (CIFTA)

The Modernized Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement (CIFTA) entered into force on September 1, 2019.

• The modernized CIFTA entered into force on September 1, 2019

• The Canada-Israel partnership holds a lot of potential for the years ahead, and the modernized CIFTA helps us seize this potential

• The new agreement helps Canadian companies in several ways, including new market access and new provisions to help address any non-tariff barriers that may arise

• The modernized CIFTA also includes new inclusive trade elements such as trade and gender, as well as provisions on small- and medium-sized enterprises, with a view to helping ensure the benefits of trade are more widely shared

The original CIFTA entered into force in 1997, eliminating tariffs on all industrial products and some agricultural and fish and seafood products. Further tariff concessions were implemented in 2003 on additional agricultural and fish products. Through two phases of negotiations between 2014 and 2018, Canada and Israel have again modernized the Agreement by updating four existing chapters (Rules of Origin, Dispute Settlement, Goods Market Access, Administration of the Agreement), and adding nine new chapters (Trade Facilitation, E-Commerce, Intellectual Property, Technical Barriers to Trade, Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, Labour, Environment, Gender and Trade, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)).

With the entry into force of the modernized CIFTA, close to 100% of all current Canadian agriculture, agri-food, and fish and seafood exports to Israel will benefit from some form of preferential tariff treatment, up from the current level of 90%. Canada excluded over-quota tariffs on supply-managed products (dairy, poultry and eggs) from any tariff elimination or reduction and from any tariff quota expansion or creation.

Also included in the modernized agreement are new provisions to address non-tariff barriers and establish mechanisms under which Canada and Israel can cooperate to address and seek to resolve unjustified non-tariff barriers that may arise. New chapters on Trade and Gender and SMEs provide a framework to undertake cooperation activities in these areas. The modernized CIFTA also includes new provisions on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) that affirm the Parties' commitment to encourage the use of voluntary CSR standards by enterprises, with specific reference to the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.

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