Stakeholder debrief report – 11^th ASEAN-Canada Free Trade Agreement Trade Negotiating Committee meeting

January 10-17, 2025 (Bangkok, Thailand)

General overview

Canada hosted the 11^th Trade Negotiating Committee (TNC) and Related Meetings of the ASEAN - Canada Free Trade Agreement (ACAFTA) negotiations in Bangkok, Thailand from January 10^th – 17^th, 2025. The following eight negotiating tables met alongside the TNC: Trade in Services, Temporary Movement of Natural Persons, Investment, Intellectual Property, Sanitary and Phytosanitary Issues, Technical Barriers to Trade, Good Regulatory Practices, and Legal and Institutional Issues, along with special participation from Canada’s Financial Services lead.  

The 11^th ACAFTA TNC was co-led by Canada’s Chief Negotiator (CN) and TNC Co-Chair, Mary-Catherine Speirs, Director General, Trade Negotiations Bureau (抖淫视频) and ASEAN’s TNC Co-Chair, Dina Kurniasari, Director of ASEAN Negotiations, Ministry of Trade of the Republic of Indonesia.

Reports from the following 11 Subsidiary Bodies were presented to the TNC:

1. E-Commerce
2. Good Regulatory Practices
3. Intellectual Property
4. Investment
5. Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures
6. Standards, Technical Regulations and Conformity Assessment Procedures/Technical Barriers to Trade
7. Telecommunications
8. Trade in Services
9. Temporary Entry of Natural Persons
10. Trade Remedies
11. Legal and Institutional Issues

Key takeaways from the 11^th TNC

• The 11^th TNC was an important opportunity to set a positive and constructive tone for 2025, noting that Ministers have agreed to work towards substantial conclusion in 2025.
• The TNC adopted a new monitoring mechanism to evaluate the progress of each subsidiary body using a variety of indicators and agreed to use it to guide the TNC agenda moving forward, so that issues requiring the guidance of Chief Negotiators are identified promptly.
• The TNC convened negotiators from the Working Groups on Investment and Services (Cross-Border Trade in Services only) and welcomed a presentation by Canada’s Financial Services lead negotiator. Specific efforts were made to resolve intersecting issues affecting progress on services, investment and financial services.

Key developments from the Subsidiary Bodies

The in-person meetings facilitated frank and productive exchanges across-the-board, setting the foundation for further progress at future meetings, particularly at the Trade in Services, Investment and Intellectual Property tables. First offers have been exchanged on Temporary Movement (TMNP)and offers were discussed during bilateral meetings. Progress was made on both E-Commerce and Telecommunications, closing several articles.

Notable progress was achieved on Good Regulatory Practices (GRP) with significant portions of the text now agreed. Discussions on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) and Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) are progressing at a deliberate pace with productive discussions on the core substantive elements of the chapters.

Trade Remedies met for the first time since April 2024, allowing for a substantive discussion to identify areas of common interest related to trade remedy investigative practices. The Legal and Institutional Issues Subsidiary Body held productive discussions on five of the six chapters it negotiates (Initial Provisions and General Definitions; Administrative and Institutional Provisions; Exceptions and General Provisions; Transparency; and Dispute Settlement), with good progress made in advancing and closing text across several articles in those chapters.

Contact us

If you would like to comment on any of 抖淫视频's trade, investment or innovation programs, policies or services, please contact us at:

Trade Negotiations Bureau (TCD)
抖淫视频
Lester B. Pearson Building
125 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, ON K1A 0G2
Fax: 613-944-0757
Email: consultations@international.gc.ca