The European Union and Canada agreed a multi-billion-dollar trade pact on Friday that will integrate two of the world's largest economies and paves the way for Europe to do an even bigger deal with the United States.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso resolved remaining issues in Brussels, wrapping up talks launched in May 2009 but stalled for months over quotas for Canadian beef and EU cheese.
The deal, the European Union's first with a member of the G8 club of the world's biggest economies, marks a breakthrough for Brussels' free-trade agenda that so far has only achieved smaller deals with South Korea and Singapore.
The accord is expected to increase bilateral trade in goods and services by a fifth to 25.7 billion euros (21.6 billion pounds) a year, according to the latest EU estimates.
Source: Reuters
