Canada is justified in making very clear to the European Union that it may well start a World Trade Organization lawsuit, if there is a vote in favour of a proposed measure that would attach a special opprobrium to oil from the Canadian oil sands, under the EU’s fuel quality directive.
A group called Friends of the Earth Europe is making much of Canadian documents it has obtained under a freedom-of-information request, but in fact Joe Oliver, the Minister of Natural Resources, made public the federal government’s position in October, 2011, in a letter to the EU’s commissioner for energy. He raised the prospect that Canada would “not hesitate to defend its interests” if “unjust, discriminatory measures … are put in place.”
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