Country Business Brief: Canada

3.Trade Restrictions
a.Tariffs
Canada's General Preferences Tariffs applies to over 180 developing countries and customs territories, including economies in transition. The GPT covers most products (81.5 percent of all items in the Customs Tariff are covered), but excludes products in areas such as supply-managed agricultural products, refined sugar, and most textiles, apparel and footwear. Three quarters of covered products enter Canada duty-free; the remainder has tariff rates that are generally less than the Most-Favored-Nation (MFN) Tariff rates.
b.Non-tariffs Barriers
Canada has eliminated quotas on almost all imports from least developed countries. But to improve market access it must proceed hand in hand with the elimination of trade-distorting subsidies. The direct costs of agricultural subsidies, in particular, dwarf developed country aid transfers to the developing world. But even more seriously, they distort agricultural markets in both developing and developed countries. Beyond agriculture, we need to improve disciplines on the use of subsidies and trade remedy measures to ensure that market access is not undermined. And these issues should not be seen only in "North-South" terms. Developing countries themselves frequently maintain high barriers to the regional and "South-South" trade that should be an important catalyst for future growth.
4.Economic Bloc Membership
In 1986 Canada concluded the Caribbean Agreement with the Commonwealth countries and territories of the Caribbean, thereby permitting tariff-free entry for all products from those lands with the exception of several product lines such as clothing, textiles, footwear and leather goods.
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