The overall benefit to Canada are such that even the New Democratic Party, which has historically been opposed to free trade agreements, has announced its support for this deal that is expected to increase Canadian exports by 32% and add $1.7B to our economy. Hopefully, this deal with South Korea will also encourage greater movement on Canada's trade negotiations with Japan (the world's 3rd largest economy at $5.1 trillion). Canada-Japan discussions were launched in 2012 and has gone through 6 rounds of negotiations.

There is even more potential with what occurred on Friday, when Prime Minister Harper hosted Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council, and José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission at the Canada-European Union Summit. The Canadian government characterizes the agreement reached with the EU (whose 28 member states have 500 million people and annual economic activity of close to $17 trillion) as "broader in scope and deeper in ambition than the historic North American Free Trade Agreement." It is estimated that this agreement, once ratified, could boost bilateral trade by 20% and result in a $12B annual increase to the Canadian economy. Admittedly, the road to ratification could be a long one.

Furthermore, with this agreement, Canada will be the only G7 country to have preferential access to the United States and the European Union, giving us access to over 800 million consumers. A good week for Canada at a time of unprecedented trade promotion.

To put it in perspective, under former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, Canada completed the free trade agreement with the United States.

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