We are very optimistic about Canada's competitive position in Jordan vis-à-vis the two main competitors, the European Union and the United States. Despite the fact that Jordan negotiated and signed FTAs with both those parties quite some years before they did with Canada, those agreements, particularly with the U.S., involved long phase-out periods of Jordanian tariffs, which was roughly a decade in the U.S. case.
Those reductions were only completed roughly two years ago, I think in January 2010. In the case of Canada, we have negotiated in this agreement immediate tariff elimination on the part of Jordan for 67% of their tariff lines, which represent 99% of current Canadian exports to Jordan. So the day after this agreement comes into force, 99% of Canadian exports, based on what we were exporting at the time of the negotiations, will be duty-free.
That is a significant catch-up advantage to the U.S. and the EU, relative to a scenario where we would be facing ten-year phase-outs, for example. Moreover, on the remaining 33% of tariff lines, Jordan is phasing these out in a period of either three years or five years, which is also relatively ambitious and much more ambitious than they were in their other free trade agreements.
So yes, we would suggest that in terms of doing what the government can do in terms of creating a liberalized and barrier-free commercial environment for our stakeholders, this is a very good scenario. Then once the commercial environment is in place, it's up to industry and their stakeholders to seize the opportunities.