In the standard model (SM) the lowest order contribution to the quark
electric dipole moment (EDM) occurs at the three loop level. We show that the
non-unitarity of the CKM matrix in models with an extended quark sector
typically gives rise to a quark EDM at the two loop level which has no GIM-like
suppression factors except the external quark mass. The induced neutron EDM is
of order 10^{-29} e cm and can be well within the reach of the next generation
of experiments if it is further enhanced by long distance physics as happens in
the SM.Comment: Some typos are corrected. References are updated. Discussion on FCNC
contributions is adde
