441-02076 (Business and trade)

The Government of Canada condemns Russia’s unprovoked and unjustifiable war of aggression against Ukraine in the strongest possible terms. The war is a blatant violation of international law, including the UN Charter, and a threat to global peace and security. President Putin’s war of choice is a war on freedom, democracy, and the rights of Ukrainians, and all people, to determine their own future.

Canada and its like-minded partners have been coordinating closely on responsive measures to enhance support for the people and government of Ukraine and to impose costs on Russian leadership. The Government of Canada’s support to Ukraine has been comprehensive. With a long relationship dating back to the end of the Cold War, Canada drew on a strong foundation of bilateral assistance and diplomatic ties when Russia launched a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Since 2022, the Government of Canada has committed over $13.3 billion in multifaceted assistance to Ukraine. Assistance is diverse and all-encompassing, including military, development, humanitarian, security and stabilization and financial assistance.  Support through financial assistance, expertise, sanctions, and diplomacy also addresses vitally important challenges such as constraining Russia's ability to finance its war, holding Russia to account for massive violations of international law and violations of human rights in Ukraine, as well as countering Russian disinformation, and addressing the global impact of the war on food security and energy.

Diplomatically, Canada has played a central role in supporting the six United Nations General Assembly resolutions denouncing the war as illegal and issuing statements and other actions across multiple multilateral organizations to hold Russia to account. Canada has also played a key leadership role across G7, G20, NATO, and other groupings, leading to an unsurpassed level of collective action and coordination.

Another form of Canadian support to Ukraine is through the modernized Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement (CUFTA), a comprehensive, high-standard agreement that, once implemented, will strengthen the foundation on which Canadian and Ukrainian businesses can work together in the economic reconstruction of Ukraine. Building on the original 2017 CUFTA which was a comprehensive goods-focussed agreement, Canada and Ukraine launched negotiations to modernize the agreement to include various new chapters on trade in services, investment, and other areas. The final modernized CUFTA was signed by the Prime Minister and President Zelenskyy in Ottawa on September 22, 2023. The Act to implement the 2023 Free Trade Agreement between Canada and Ukraine, Bill-C57, was later introduced in Parliament where opposition to the Bill has been raised regarding the inclusion of carbon pricing in the CUFTA Environment chapter.

The Environment chapter recognizes that trade has an important role in addressing the threat to climate and includes several provisions to facilitate cooperation between Canada and Ukraine on matters of mutual interests regarding trade and the environment, including on carbon pricing. These provisions, which are cooperation-based in nature and not binding on either party, are included to facilitate cooperation between our two countries and would only apply if Canada and Ukraine agree to cooperate after considering factors such as national priorities, circumstances, and availability of resources. However, it should be noted that the Agreement does not include any provisions requiring the implementation of a carbon tax. Additionally, carbon pricing has been in place since 2019 in Canada while Ukraine introduced a carbon tax in 2011, which covers all types of fuels, to address CO2 emissions from industry, power, and buildings sectors.