CERT Origins, Business and Politics

Round Table Meetings

• 16 June 1999 Launch Event
• 16 December 1999
• 20 December 2000
• 18 December 2001
• 8 May 2002
• 19 December 2002

December 20, 2000
Canada-Europe Round Table (CERT) outlines new Business Plan to Lamy and Pettigrew

One day after the December 19th Canada-EU Summit, a CERT business delegation met with Canadian Minister for International Trade Pierre Pettigrew and EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy to deliver a memorandum on bilateral and multilateral trade issues and to brief them on CERT's efforts over the past year to further develop its activities on both sides of the Atlantic.

CERT also announced that The Hon. Roy MacLaren, former Canadian Minister for International Trade and British High Commissioner will assume the position of Canadian Chairman on 1 February, joining his European partner, Interbrew Chairman Baron Paul de Keersmaeker.

CERT clearly outlined its Mission to Messrs. Lamy and Pettigrew as being:

"To promote and strengthen trade and investment dialogue between the EU and Canada in the bilateral and global economic interests of both industry and government. To this end, CERT will act as a high-level catalyst, enabler, facilitator and issue-solver".

Minister Pettigrew congratulated CERT on the forum's solid plan for its future. He noted that CERT can act as a "bridge" to ensure that Canada and the EU do not drift apart by making an important contribution in reminding governments of the concerns of industry. Commissioner Lamy noted that he believed CERT was going in the right direction, particularly with respect to its renewed mission focus and critical thinking on delivery. He indicated that he would measure CERT's progress based on its ability to "challenge us" -- the EU and Canada - on policy issues, and on its ability to focus on a limited number of issues per meeting, a weakness of other initiatives.

In a shift from earlier approaches, CERT will be seeking a substantive contribution from large corporations by establishing a "Presidents Group", which will provide CERT's overall direction and be supported by corporate and associate members. CERT further announced that it would convene an annual CEO Roundtable Conference, the first of which will be towards the end of 2001, and two yearly working level mini-roundtable meetings. These three meetings will be supported by working modules that fall under the headings of Markets and Policies/regulations. In addition, CERT requested involvement in the EU-Canada Trade Initiative (ECTI) and future Canada-EU Summits by offering policy inputs and expressed its interest in conducting projects and studies of relevance to Canada-EU trade relations.