Canadian beef Halal-standard meat packers hope to gain better access and Cereals Canada said a deal could expand on existing sales.
Canadians “expressed a high level of support for a possible Canada-Indonesia CEPA” during public consultations earlier this year, the government said in a news release.
Supply-managed sectors expressed support for a deal, so long as the federal Liberals uphold a commitment to not provide any more market-access to supply managed goods.
Across the board, there is broad support for Canada to pursue a bilateral deal with Indonesia at the same time it seeks a broader pact with the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which is headquartered in Indonesia.
Canada and the ASEAN group held two rounds of exploratory talks, in 2018 and 2019, toward a possible trade pact. Four ASEAN nations — Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei — are already parties to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) trade pact with Canada.
By itself, Indonesia is “one of the top destinations for Canadian cereal crops and a gateway into the rapidly growing Asia Pacific region,” said Dean Dias, CEO of Cereals Canada.
Indonesia, he said, “is a major market and source of growth, especially for Canadian wheat exports. Consumers there buy 11 per cent of Canada’s wheat exports to the world, bringing over $600 million in value on average to Canadian farmers and exporters each year.”
