Canada's Minister of International Trade says that the EU and CPTPP have agreed to move forward with a "historic" digital deal.

Canada's Trade Minister said that the European Union and parties to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement of Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) agreed to move forward on Friday with a "historical" digital trade deal between the two trading blocs.

Maninder Sidhu is Canada's Minister for International Trade. He said: "The concrete outcome of today's discussion was that we should move forward with the digital trade agreement."

On Friday, the EU and CPTPP parties - which includes 12 countries including Japan, Britain, Canada Mexico, Australia, Malaysia, - met in Cameroon, on the sidelines of the WTO Ministerial Conference.

If this happens, which we hope it will, then this will be historical. Sidhu stated that it will be the biggest trading agreement of civilization.

He said that the joining of two blocs, which together represent 1.6 million people and $35 trillion in economies, would be significant.

In a press release, the EU stated that this agreement could be used as a "model for a region-to-region work track" in digital commerce.

A digital trade agreement between the EU and CPTPP would be a huge success. A spokesperson for the EU said that we 'need to accelerate', because DTAs are a 'future-proof layer in trade agreements.

The minister said that the deal would focus on e-commerce, data flow and storage. He added that the ministers will continue their discussions about what the deal might look like. Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin, Yaounde. Editing by Chizu nomiyama

(source: Reuters)