CANADA: Government to increase Canada foreign investment thresholds for EU and FTA countries

Tuesday October 22 2013

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has announced that Canada will relax rules on foreign investment for the U.S., Mexico and 12 other countries as a result of its free trade pact with the European Union.

In a speech in Brussels, Harper stated that the government will raise the threshold for reviewing foreign investment from EU countries to C$1.5 billion from C$344 million, as part of its trade agreement with the region. Canada will similarly boost the review limit for non-EU countries with which it has signed trade pacts.

Under the Canada-EU pact, EU investments can still be reviewed to determine whether they are of “net benefit” and meet national security requirements.

In addition to the U.S., Mexico and the EU, Canada has free trade agreements with Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Panama, Jordan, Colombia, Peru, Costa Rica, Chile, Israel and Honduras.

Canada is also negotiating free trade agreements with Japan, South Korea, India and Singapore and is part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade talks seeking a Pacific-region agreement.