Canada and the European Union (EU) are still in disagreement over a long-delayed free-trade agreement, officials in Ottawa said Friday, increasing doubt about the deal as the EU shifts focus to a bigger pact with the United States. The bilateral deal was intended to be completed by the end of 2011, but has been delayed, largely because the EU is resisting Canadian demands for much greater beef access. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is visiting Ireland, France, and Britain next week and then will attend a Group of Eight (G8) summit in Northern Ireland, an event EU diplomats earlier this year suggested would be an ideal occasion to sign the trade deal. "We're not there yet. We're down to the last few issues ... and I don't expect that we'll be in a position to sign a deal next week," said Harper's chief spokesman, Andrew MacDougall. Ottawa and Brussels began talks on opening access to each other's economies in 2009 and say a deal could generate $28 billion in trade and new business each year. The challenge for Ottawa is that the EU has agreed to begin talks on a free-trade agreement with the United States, which has an economy 10 times the size of Canada's.
