Ports of Antwerp and Montreal Renew Cooperation

September 24, 2015

Belgian port of Antwerp and Canada’s port of Montreal have renewed their collaboration agreement for further three years.

The collaboration agreement was originally signed between Antwerp and Montreal, Quebec’s largest port, in 2013. The existing agreement runs until the spring of 2016, but the parties have now decided to extend it for another three years.

The ports agreed to continue sharing their know how and experiences seeing that there are a lot of similarities between them. Both ports are located deep inland on a major river, and both serve a vast hinterland covering many provinces.

Furthermore, Canada as part of North America is one of the main “foreland” partners of Antwerp. In 2014 the total volume of freight carried between Antwerp and Canada was 4.5 million tonnes.

The upcoming implementation of the trade agreement between the EU and Canada – the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) due to be ratified in 2016 – should give a major boost to this trade in the next few years, the statement for the port of Antwerp says.

Earlier this year, Philippe Couillard, Prime Minister of Quebec, paid a working visit to the port of Antwerp. A few weeks before his arrival, Couillard presented Quebec’s new Maritime Strategy during a speech in Montreal.

The strategy is aimed at creating employment, facilitating transport and logistics and promoting sustainable development of industry.

“Quebec is readier than ever to makes its expertise, well developed infrastructure and huge, expanding economic market available to its European partners,” said Couillard on this occasion.