The Honourable Mary Ng, Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade, during a call with Elizabeth Truss, the United Kingdom’s Secretary of State for International Trade, announced that Canada is ratifying the Canada-United Kingdom (U.K.) Trade Continuity Agreement (TCA). This announcement follows the Royal Assent of Bill C-18: An Act to implement the Agreement on Trade Continuity between Canada and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in the House of Commons.

The Canada-U.K. TCA will provide Canadian exporters and businesses with continued preferential access to the U.K. market and 98% of Canadian products will continue to be exported to the UK tariff-free. The agreement provides much needed predictability and stability, and will support workers and businesses on both sides of the Atlantic. Canada and the U.K. are taking all necessary steps required to implement this agreement for April 1, 2021.

As the Canada-U.K. TCA is meant to be an interim measure, Canada and the U.K. look forward to engaging in future negotiations on a new, high-standard and ambitious free trade agreement that will best reflect the bilateral relationship and trade priorities.

This is an excerpt from a 19 March 2021 Global Affairs news release.