EU-Canada: removing regulatory obstacles

Relations between the European Union and Canada are set to become even closer as they develop their formal and informal regulatory cooperation to remove barriers to trade and investment. The need to prevent the existence of regulatory obstacles is underlined by the fact that the Union is Canada's second largest commercial partner, representing 10% of total Canadian imports and 6% of its exports. Bilateral investment levels are also high. Canada is the fourth most important investor in the EU after the US, Switzerland and Japan, while the Union occupies second place in Canada with a quarter of all foreign direct investment.