Today, a business lunch was held at the Sheraton Hotel organized by the Croatian-Canadian Business Network (CCBN), attended by President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović and Canadian Ambassador Daniel Maksymiuk.
The Ambassador expressed confidence that the trade agreement between the European Union and Canada (CETA) is very, very close and stated that the question the business community must now ask is ‘how much more competitive will my business be and how can I take advantage of that?’. He characterized Croatian companies as dynamic, innovative, and well-managed, and CETA as a potential catalyst for increasing economic cooperation.
President Grabar-Kitarović reminded that Canadian companies in Croatia employ over three thousand people and generate over one billion kuna in annual revenue, as well as that signing the agreement would eliminate 98 percent of tariffs and open access to public tenders in Canada. However, she warned that Croatian-Canadian relations must not depend on and rely on the signing of CETA, especially considering that the economic cooperation between the two countries is not even close to its optimum.
She sees the development of cooperation in five areas: utilizing the potential of the Croatian diaspora, attracting Canadian companies to Croatia, cooperation in growing industries, youth mobility, and the ‘Three Seas’ initiative. She called the government’s initial steps steps in the right direction and warned that Croatia must enhance its economic promotion, for example, by emphasizing its ‘backdoor’ advantage, just like Canada (‘backdoor’ for entering the North American market, or in Croatia’s case, as an entry point to the Central and Eastern European market).
