23 January 1997
PRESS STATEMENT

During the official visit to France of Mr Jean Chretien, the Prime Minister of Canada, Mr François Fillon met Mr John Manley, the Canadian Minister of Industry. The discussion included the subject of cooperation between the two countries with regard to the information highway, and negotiations currently underway at the WTO on telecommunications.

Canada will give its support to the candidature put forward by Mr Fillon to organise the international meeting of INET 1998 in Nice. On the subject of the WTO, both ministers were pleased with their common position on the necessity to avoid confusion between the telecommunications and the audiovisual sectors.

During these meetings, six accords were signed in the presence of both ministers between French and Canadian industrialists in the areas of information technology, multimedia and space.

© Secretary of State for industry - France