Ottawa (VNA) - The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-PacificPartnership (CPTPP), which is due to be signed in Chile on March 8, will openup opportunities for cooperation between Vietnam and Canada.

The signing will be an important starting point for establishing a potentialfree trade area with a population of nearly 500 million people and GDP ofaround 10,000 billion USD, or 13 percent of the global GDP.

According to Steward Beck, President and CEO of the Asia-Pacific Fund Canada,the pact is really important for Canada because it gets access to the Japanesemarket, Canada’s fourth largest market, as well as well as others like Vietnam,Singapore and ASEAN, which are important markets but the northern Americancountry does not have trade arrangement.

“It is gonna give Vietnam advantages”, he told Vietnam News Agency’scorrespondent on the eve of the official signing ceremony. For Canada, “itgives us advantages in place like Vietnam,” he added.

He highlighted Vietnam’s potential with a young labour and half of thepopulation being under 25 and well educated.

“Once you start marketing CPTPP with the Canadian business community, they willstart focusing on opportunities Vietnam offers to them.”

Beck pointed out fields the two sides have opportunities for cooperation suchas technology, which, he said, will become much more important in doingbusiness today whether e-commerce, finance technology, and services, along withVietnam’s export of more seafood and other products to Canada.

“In the next two-three years, once the agreement is enforced, we will see more engagementswith Vietnam in areas important for Vietnam and Canada.”

He believed more people would go to Vietnam and more people will see whatopportunities are it will create that type of business.

Besides, there is a large of Vietnamese community in Canada, they will helpbecause they would know what the business opportunity is in Vietnam. They willbe able to make those connections, Beck affirmed.

After the US withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the predecessorof the CPTPP, in 2017, the remaining 11 countries -Australia, Brunei, Canada,Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam-agreed to maintain the deal and rename it CPTPP.

It sets high criteria in numerous fields, including labour, the environment,intellectual property, digital economy and cyber security. Twenty-twoprovisions of the CPTPP, including sensitive ones related to intellectualproperty, were suspended or changed in comparison to the TPP.

The pact will come into force 60 days after it is fully ratified by six of the11 members.-VNA