Canada and UK Negotiating a Free Trade Agreement

On March 24, 2022< Today, the Honourable Mary Ng, Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development, and the United Kingdom’s Secretary of State for International Trade, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, announced they will proceed with negotiations toward a comprehensive bilateral free trade agreement (FTA). The first round of negotiations will begin on March 28, 2022.

• The United Kingdom was Canada’s third-largest individual country trading partner in 2021 for both goods and services, which were valued together at $42.2 billion.
• Canada exported $24.1 billion in goods and services to and imported $18.1 billion in goods and services from United Kingdom in 2021. 3,700 Canadian companies on average export goods to the United Kingdom annually. More than 92% are SMEs.
• The United Kingdom is Canada’s second-largest individual partner, after the United States, in bilateral services trade, direct investment and science, technology and innovation partnerships. In 2019, Canada-U.K. trade in clean technology and environmental products reached $677.6 million.
• The Canada-U.K. Trade Continuity Agreement (TCA) will continue to provide certainty for Canadian and U.K. businesses and remain in place over the course of the negotiations.
• Both the bilateral negotiations and the United Kingdom’s possible accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) present opportunities for Canada to further enhance its relationship with the United Kingdom.
• Canada and the United Kingdom cooperate closely in multilateral forums, including the G7, G20, WTO and Ottawa Group on WTO reform, to advance common interests and promote rules-based international trade.