The European Union (EU) and Canada have reached a free trade deal, the European Commission said Friday. \"We have taken a crucial step forward in strengthening relations between the European Union and Canada,\" European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in a joint declaration with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The EU-Canada agreement, the fisrt between the EU and a G8 member, will remove over 99 percent of tariffs between the two economies, said an EU press release.