Port Partnerships: Montreal/HAROPA
Montreal Port Authority and French Port Consortium Sign International Cooperation Agreement
The Montreal Port Authority and HAROPA entered an international cooperation agreement during the Sister Port Conference, September 4-6, in France.
HAROPA, an alliance between the ports of Le Havre, Rouen and Paris, serves a hinterland centered in the Seine Valley and the Paris region, the biggest French consumer market area. In 2016, the HAROPA ports handled more than 115 million tons of maritime and waterway cargo and 2.6 million container TEUs.
The agreement was signed on September 6 in the lounges of the Le Havre Townhall, by Hervé Martel, HAROPA president, and Sylvie Vachon, president and CEO of the Montreal Port Authority. The objective is to strengthen and extend cooperation in the various technical, sales and research/innovation sectors of port business and develop synergies between the two port entities.
The work will include thematic workshops in Montreal, Le Havre, Rouen or Paris, joint communications, sharing of market intelligence, drawing-up of joint research timetables, stage reports founded upon the exchange and working-out of exemplary practices.
"As the leading French port system, HAROPA is very pleased about this agreement with Montreal which is, to-date, our major trade partner in Canada and our 2nd largest partner on the East-American coast," said; M. Hervé Martel. "Through the experience acquired via about thirty twinning and cooperation agreements we have signed, we know all the synergy which will be set up with Montreal and the benefits for our two ports."
Noting that about 40 percent of Montreal’s seatrade is with northern Europe, Ms. Vachon predicted that the economic and trade agreement between Canada and the European Union, which took effect September 21 "will strengthen these trade bonds and create a new favorable business environment to the growth of our trade and the structuring effects that will follow from that in our respective economies. This memorandum of understanding between HAROPA and the Montreal Port Authority is signed at a significant and historic time."