At the invitation of President Mauricio Macri, the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, travelled to Argentina on November 17 to 18, 2016, for his first official visit to South America.
Building on more than 75 years of bilateral relations, the Prime Minister and President Macri reconfirmed their commitment to strengthening the relationship by advancing priority areas of mutual interest and increasing collaboration to address international and regional issues. The leaders committed to an annual high level policy dialogue led, when possible, by the foreign ministers.
The leaders agreed to collaborate in the following priority areas:
Fostering democracy, pluralism and human rights
Canada and Argentina agreed to closer collaboration on human rights, democratic institutions, pluralism, the respect for fundamental liberties and the rule of law, through the following measures:
1. Canada providing technical assistance to support Argentina’s pledge to accept refugees from Syria and neighbouring countries, including in the areas of private sponsorship and refugee integration into Argentine society.
2. Enhancing collaboration on inclusive and accountable governance, including through sharing Canadian best practices on open government to foster transparency, encourage participative society, and gather sound information in priority areas to develop effective policies.
3. Strengthening bilateral and multilateral dialogue on human rights through the re-establishment of the annual Canada-Argentina bilateral human rights consultations.
4. Sharing information and technical expertise between Canada and Argentina’s White Helmets Commission on humanitarian issues and disaster relief.
5. Committing to continue to deepen Canada-Argentina cultural and educational ties.
Promoting inclusive growth, trade and innovation
Canada welcomes Argentina’s decision to lift the business visa requirement for Canadian business travellers, as of December 1, 2016. This waiver will facilitate exchanges and support enhanced bilateral trade, investment, and innovation cooperation between the two countries. Both Canada and Argentina are committed to promoting inclusive growth that fosters economic opportunities for all, through:
6. Intensifying collaboration on responsible mineral resource development and committing to the promotion of good practices along the entire value chain of mineral development. This will be accomplished by:
- Canada sharing information on its environmental regulations, mine closures, land rehabilitation, and consultations with local and Indigenous communities;
- Underscoring the importance of the memorandum of understanding recently signed between the Chamber of Mines in Argentina and the Mining Association of Canada to adopt “Towards Sustainable Mining,” a corporate social responsibility program that will serve to improve environmental and social practices in the mining industry;
- Encouraging all those involved in prospecting, exploration and development of mineral resources to comply with legal and regulatory requirements, and to implement voluntary standards and guidelines existing in both countries.
7. Maintaining an ongoing dialogue on deepening the Canada-MERCOSUR trade and investment relationship.
8. Sharing the Canadian private-public partnership model, in particular for infrastructure investments.
9. Increasing research collaboration on polar and subpolar issues, guided by the framework of the Canada-Argentina 2010 Letter of Agreement on Cooperation in Arctic and Antarctic Science, with a focus on climate change and associated impacts.
10. Working to conclude a Canada-Argentina customs mutual assistance agreement. The objectives of this agreement would be to provide a legal basis to share customs information in order to prevent, investigate and combat customs offences and provide reciprocal mutual assistance to ensure the proper application of customs laws.
11. Committing to finalize, in 2017, the negotiations of a social security agreement that will foster people-to-people ties by assisting individuals who have lived and worked in Canada and Argentina to qualify for benefits based on their affiliation to each country’s pension system. This agreement will also help to promote increased trade and investment between the two countries by reducing operating costs for companies active in each other’s territory.
12. Expressing satisfaction with: progress made to open access for Canadian and Argentinian agricultural products in each other’s markets; and, work being undertaken to expand and open new opportunities for producers and exporters in both countries. The two nations acknowledged the necessary steps to complete the process to allow for the export of pork meat and live swine from Canada to Argentina. They also acknowledged the recent opening of the Canadian market to Argentine beef exports, as well as the positive work by Canadian and Argentina technical authorities to establish access for Argentine poultry meat to Canada.
13. Strengthening bilateral and multilateral cooperation on disarmament, non-proliferation, and the peaceful use of nuclear energy. Both countries committed to resuming their nuclear regulatory cooperation and re-establishing bilateral nuclear consultations pursuant to the Canada-Argentina Nuclear Cooperation Agreement.
Multilateral engagement
Canada and Argentina reiterate their commitment to effective multilateralism by:
14. Enhancing efforts to address climate change through the full and effective implementation of the Paris Agreement, and working together with regional and international partners to strengthen the global response to climate change.
15. Working together at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to promote a progressive trade and inclusive growth agenda that creates more and better jobs for the middle class and those working hard to join it; one that opens both countries to new economic, social and environmental possibilities. Canada and Argentina look forward to achieving meaningful results at the WTO’s 11th Ministerial Conference, to be held in Buenos Aires in December 2017.
16. Recognizing the experience of Canada and Argentina in responding to crises abroad and reaffirming their commitment to support UN peace operations in building a more peaceful and prosperous world.
17. Collaborating to advance the G20 agenda under Argentina’s G20 presidency in 2018, and Canada’s G7 presidency the same year.
18. Increasing cooperation in the Americas on democracy, human rights, gender equality, and security, in particular within the Organization of American States, where Canada and Argentina share similar values.
19. Working together in regional and multilateral forums to address transnational crime and drug trafficking, and exploring ways to exchange expertise and increase our capabilities in these areas.
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