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TORONTO — Federal, provincial and territorial trade ministers said Tuesday discussions to create a new internal trade deal are about halfway finished and there is a “historic” amount of agreement between them.

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Canada’s western premiers have sent a joint letter to their provincial counterparts calling for them to help create a domestic free trade zone by knocking down internal trade barriers estimated to cost the country $50-billion a year.









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The ministers met in Toronto to talk about renewing the 20-year-old Agreement on Internal Trade.

Industry Minister James Moore says it’s “completely backwards” to have less economic freedom within Canada than the country has agreed to with the rest of the world.

He says there is agreement among the ministers to make sure Canada is as open interprovincially as it is to Europe and the United States on trade, labour mobility and the movement of goods and services.