Canada and the EU already have low tariffs on most goods except agriculture, which the Europeans will not open up outside the lines of a broader agreement including the United States, the world's other major agricultural subsidiser. The planned Canada-EU deal will instead focus on freer trade in investment and services such as business consulting, engineering and banking.
Noting that Angola is one of the world's largest fuel price subsidisers, IMF staff stressed that the fiscal cost of the country's fuel subsidies has been increasing in recent years due to higher international fuel prices.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) warned on Tuesday that hundreds of billions of fossil fuel subsidies "encourage wasteful consumption" and discourage investment, pointing to Iran and Saudi Arabia as the world's biggest fuel subsidisers.