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Canada ratifies investment deal with China despite misgivings

Darpan News Desk Canadian Press, 12 Sep, 2014 12:07 PM

OTTAWA - Canada has ratified the contentious Foreign Investment Protection Agreement with China.

International Trade Minister Ed Fast says the deal, known as FIPA, has been ratified and will come into force on Oct. 1.

Fast says the agreement provides the protections and the confidence Canadian investors need to expand, grow and succeed abroad.

But the deal, aimed at enhancing foreign investment by providing a framework of legal obligations, has been met with suspicion and alarm not just by the government's usual critics, but Conservative cabinet ministers too.

The government failed to ratify FIPA until now amid a series of tensions in Canada-China relations.

Earlier this summer, Prime Minister Stephen Harper accused the Chinese of a cyberattack on the National Research Council, while the Chinese claimed that a Canadian couple living in China were spies.

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