UK, Canada Sign Post-Brexit Continuity Trade Deal

by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

30 November 2020

Canada and the UK have announced the successful conclusion of negotiations on an interim trade agreement, which will be in place as they work toward a comprehensive post-Brexit free trade deal.

The UK is currently covered by the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), but the Brexit transition period will conclude at the end of 2020. This means that CETA will no longer apply to the UK as of January 1, 2021.

An interim agreement between Canada and the UK was announced on November 21, 2020. The interim agreement will provide continued access to the benefits of CETA on a bilateral basis.

This means that the UK will continue to benefit from tariff-free trade on 98 percent of goods exported to Canada. Likewise, 98 percent of Canadian products exported to the UK will remain tariff-free.

The interim agreement will take effect from January 1, 2021.

The UK was Canada's largest merchandise export market in Europe in 2019 and its third largest market worldwide. Two-way merchandise trade between Canada and the UK was worth CAD29bn in 2019.

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