{{Canada threatened on Wednesday to take the European Union to the World Trade Organization over its plans to label Canadian oil sands as dirty, but promised not to delay a bilateral trade pact.}}<\/p>\n
The issue has overshadowed relations as Canada and the EU try to deepen economic ties through a trade deal that could generate $28 billion a year in new business and commerce.<\/p>\n
Canadian Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver, on a week-long lobbying trip to Europe, accused the EU of breaking international trade rules and discriminating against Canadian exports.<\/p>\n
“We are going to take whatever action we need to, and we may well go to the WTO,” Oliver told a news conference. “We will defend our interests vigorously.”<\/p>\n
The WTO has the power to order the EU to change its rules if they are found to be unfair, but the process is lengthy.<\/p>\n
Canada’s oil sands are the world’s third largest crude reserves, but most are in the form of tar sands. Extraction from the clay-like deposits takes more energy than pumping conventional oil and results in higher carbon emissions.<\/p>\n
The European Commission has proposed labeling oil from tar sands as “highly polluting” to help implement an EU goal to cut the carbon intensity of its transport fuels by 6 percent by 2020.<\/p>\n
The Commission denies that it is singling out Canadian oil as its proposal also defines other unconventional sources of oil as carbon-intensive.<\/p>\n
Asked whether the trade deal could be signed even if the EU goes ahead with its fuel labeling, Oliver said: “Yes … These issues are entirely separate.”<\/p>\n
He said Canada did not intend to use the issue as a bargaining chip.<\/p>\n
Talks on a free trade deal began in 2009 and are in the last stage, diplomats say, but have stumbled over a series of issues.<\/p>\n
Canada, which is anxious to find new markets for its oil and gas outside the United States, argues that Europe should embrace it as a stable, reliable energy producer.<\/p>\n
Yet many in the environment lobby say long-term investment in new heavy crude infrastructure and development would badly undermine attempts to limit climate change.<\/p>\n
Twelve climate scientists and energy experts said in a letter to Oliver this week that Canadian policy was delaying the transition to an economy that was less reliant on carbon.<\/p>\n
“We are at a critical moment,” the group, among them academics from Harvard in the United States, and from British Columbia and Queen’s universities in Canada, wrote in the letter, seen by media. <\/p>\n
“The responsibility for preventing dangerous climate change rests with today’s policymakers.”<\/p>\n
A report on Wednesday indicated the European Commission’s tar sands proposal would shift investment towards lower-carbon oil sources and could save up to 19 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year – equivalent to removing 7 million cars from Europe’s roads.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{{Canada threatened on Wednesday to take the European Union to the World Trade Organization over its plans to label Canadian oil sands as dirty, but promised not to delay a bilateral trade pact.}} The issue has overshadowed relations as Canada and the EU try to deepen economic ties through a trade deal that could generate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-7708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7708\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7708"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=7708"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=7708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}