November 18, 2020

Trudeau Says Post-Brexit Trade Deal With U.K. Should Be Done By Year-End

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says a trade agreement with Britain should be secured by the end of the year — though there’s a chance Britain might not have the “bandwidth” to move forward with talks.

“I think we’re ready to have it done before January 1. One of the challenges is bandwidth,” he told an online conference hosted by the Financial Times on Wednesday, and reported by Reuters.

“The U.K. hasn’t had to negotiate trade deals in the past few decades so there is an issue of not really having the bandwidth within government to move forward on this,” he added.

“Canada is a really easy one — we’re there for it, we’d like to do it, so I’m very hopeful that it’s going to get done, but that is really up to the U.K. government.”

The U.K. officially left the European Union on Jan. 1, 2020, after more than three years of political and legal wrangling following a 2016 referendum on the question of whether to leave the trade bloc.

While the separation was official, it also kicked off an 11-month in-between period where existing rules for things like trade rules and regulations remained in effect as officials worked to nail down the final terms of major new deals to replace the existing regulations.

That transition period expires on December 31 of this year.

The deal is expected to largely mirror the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement, or CETA, which is the free trade deal Canada has in place with the European Union.

(Source: Global News)