‘Visa war’ looms after Tory reforms
The Swedish presidency of the European Union threatened retaliatory action toward Canada yesterday over new visa requirements for Czech citizens.
Critics and experts said Canada has sparked a “visa war” that could harm its trade ambitions with the EU and its NAFTA relations, because of the new visa it announced on Monday for citizens of the Czech Republic and Mexico.
Sweden, which holds the rotating EU presidency, said yesterday it favours a retaliatory visa on Canadian tourists visiting the 27-country bloc. While forcing Canadian tourists to get a visa for Europe would be a major change, the EU’s review process could take months.
Still, remarks yesterday by Sweden’s Migration and Asylum and Policy Minister Tobias Billstroem stand in sharp contrast to Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney’s assurances to Canwest News Service a day earlier that European retaliation was not at all likely.
“As the presidency of the EU, we are in favour of this reciprocity,” Mr. Billstroem told Agence France-Presse.
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