(OTTAWA) Canada and the United Kingdom announced Thursday the launch of negotiations for a post-Brexit free trade agreement, effective from 1er January 2021.
Posted at 1:13 p.m.
“I am delighted to announce that Canada and the United Kingdom are officially launching negotiations for a new free trade agreement,” announced Mary Ng, Canadian Minister of Trade in the presence of her British counterpart Anne-Marie Trevelyan.
Negotiations could last two years, said the Canadian minister.
“In 2021, the UK was Canada’s third-largest trading partner in goods and services, with billions of dollars flowing between our two countries,” she said.
For her part, Anne-Marie Trevelyan said she wanted to “go further and faster than ever to stimulate trade in areas such as digital, financial and legal services and research and development”.
Since the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union, London has been seeking to boost its international trade, but will still have to wait for a free trade agreement with Washington.
The two countries managed to settle their dispute over steel and aluminum on Tuesday, but the Biden administration did not seem in a hurry to resume negotiations for a free trade agreement.
London has so far signed agreements with non-EU European countries (Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein), but also more distant countries such as Japan, Israel and more recently Australia and New Zealand.