The UK and Canada have signed a trade agreement that secures transatlantic trade with a trading partnership worth £20 billion last year. The new agreement will come into effect on January 1, 2021. The UK will be covered by the EU-Canada FTA during the transition period. Both countries also agreed to negotiate a new, tailor-made UK-Canada trade deal in 2021.
The UK’s deputy high commissioner for Canada David Reed, and Canadian deputy minister of international trade John Hannaford signed the UK-Canada Trade Continuity Agreement in Ottawa on December 9. The signing comes after both countries last month announced an ‘agreement in principle’ to roll over current trading arrangements and begin negotiations on a new, bespoke UK-Canada trade deal in 2021.
The latest agreement gives certainty for UK businesses exporting goods and services to Canada worth £11.4 billion. The trade deal supports British industries including automotive manufacturing and food and drink, which between them provide jobs for more than half a million people across the UK.
Overall, an estimated £42 million tariff burden on UK exports has been saved, the UK department for international trade said in an official statement.
The benefits locked in under the agreement include tariff-free trade on 98 per cent of goods that can be exported to Canada from the UK.
“This is a brilliant deal for Global Britain. It secures £20 billion worth of trade with a friend and ally that shares our commitment to free enterprise, democracy and free trade. It provides certainty for car and food and drink exporters in particular, and paves the way for a more advanced deal that goes further and faster in modern areas like digital and data, women’s economic empowerment and the environment,” said UK international trade secretary Liz Truss.
The deal also takes the UK a step closer to joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a high standards agreement of 11 dynamic Pacific nations. “Membership of the TPP would deepen market access for our businesses, help turn us into a global hub for tech and services trade, and strengthen the global consensus for rules-based free trade,” said Truss.
In under two years, the UK government has agreed trade deals with 55 countries accounting for £170 billion of UK bilateral trade.
