Canada seeks to avoid Brexit cliff-edge with trade talks

Bloomberg

Canada wants to avoid a Brexit cliff-edge too. The government is pushing for its trade deal with Europe to be ratified by Britain before it leaves the European Union to secure the crucial agreement.
It also has its eye on deeper
relations with the UK once Brexit is complete.
Canada wants to preserve any preferential access that businesses or investors currently have, High Commissioner to the UK Janice Charette said in an interview from her office overlooking Trafalgar Square on March 20. “That’s the idea of avoiding some kind of a cliff-edge,” she said.
Also, “we’ll be interested in seeing what we can do to enhance the
bilateral arrangement” after the UK is out.
Prime Minister Theresa May will start formal divorce talks with the EU at the end of the month. While Britain can’t officially negotiate new trade accords until it has finished leaving, it has held preliminary discussions with several countries. The prospect of leaving the bloc without alternative arrangements in place is commonly referred to as the “cliff-edge,” which businesses say would be the most destructive outcome. Canada’s efforts to remove trade barriers with the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement come at a time when protectionist sentiment is increasing globally. US President Donald Trump has been ratcheting up rhetoric against free trade, while Group of 20 finance chiefs removed a line to “resist all forms of protectionism” in their latest communique.
Charette said the Canadian government has been successful at expanding trade while maintaining public confidence by engaging its provinces, territories, and industries, as well as reforms to help the middle class. “Various different pieces of this are put together, really with a view to supporting the interests of Canada as an open market, free-trading country,” she said. Trudeau’s finance chief, Bill Morneau, will release his second federal budget on Wednesday.
When it comes to Trump, “we are their closest neighbor, so people are curious to see if we have any insights to share,” Charette said. “We’re all comparing notes in terms of how best to make sure that the interests of our countries are well understood.”
The CETA agreement could provide some guidance for modernizing the North American Free Trade Agreement, which Trump has pledged to renegotiate, Charette said. Canada’s deal with Europe is set to boost trade with the EU by about a quarter, according to government estimates. The UK is Canada’s biggest partner within the bloc, and Charette sees further opportunities.
“If you look at just one-to-one, the area of financial services is huge for the UK, and that will be of interest for Canada” for going “beyond what is in the CETA agreement today,” Charette said.