OTTAWA - Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Gail Shea today made the following statement: “A successfully concluded Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement would protect and create Canadian jobs, and grow our economy by giving Canadian businesses access to some of the most dynamic markets in the world. As the largest trade agreement in the world, a successfully concluded TPP strategically [would also] sets preferential terms of trade for Canada in the Asia-Pacific region.
“Canada’s prosperity is built on selling our products to the world, including our fish and seafood products known for freshness and quality. Yet in markets like Japan, Malaysia and Vietnam, Canadian seafood exports face high tariffs that put our fishers at a severe disadvantage. The TPP presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to knock down those trade barriers and open up a vast 11-nation market of over 800 million consumers.
“When Canadian fish and seafood companies can reach new markets and boost their exports, it creates jobs and prosperity across the country, from large urban centres like Vancouver to small fishing villages on the Atlantic coast. Building on the successful completion of the Canada-EU free-trade agreement and the Canada-South Korea free-trade agreement, the TPP presents the fish and seafood sector with another historic opportunity to grow.
"The Government of Canada continues our work at the TPP negotiating table to protect and create Canadian jobs and grow Canada’s economy."
Quick Facts:
- Canada’s fishing industry has contributed more than $2.3 billion to Canada’s GDP in 2014 and provided some 36,500 jobs to Canadians in every area from fishing to aquaculture.
- The fish and seafood industry is the economic mainstay of approximately 1,500 communities in rural and coastal Canada.
- Canada is the world’s eighth-largest exporter of fish and seafood products, exporting an estimated 76 percent, by value, of its fish and seafood production.