By Jamie Barrie T heresa May is wasting no time as Britain’s new Prime Minister in negotiating the post-Brexit deals Britain requires. Britain’s International Trade Secretary, Liam Fox has confirmed the government is pursuing about a dozen different free trade deals as it prepares to leave the EU. Canada is one of those countries and leaked reports from British sources suggest the talks are going well. But Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s International Trade Minister, was more subdued and characterized the initial dialogue in saying “We had a very positive conversa- tion.” Many feel this is an attempt by her department to avoid taking sides in the dispute between the Britain and the EU. The Canada-EU trade deal CETA is nearly com- pleted and Freeland wants it ratified as soon as possible.
territory. Fox told the media “We have already had a number of countries saying “we’d love to do a trade deal with the world’s fifth-biggest economy without having to deal with the other 27 members of the EU.” The most aggressive player in the mix appears to be Australia who opted not to pursue a trade pact with the EU. Aussie PM, Malcolm Turnbull is calling for urgent free trade talks with Britain. “We need to get moving on that quickly ... Australia has been a great beneficiary of free trade and open markets and so has the United Kingdom.” New British PM, May says the interest in trade talks shows that Britain will prevail after Brexit. Canada needs to maintain strong ties with her government and a free trade deal will be a priority sooner or later for Freeland. The CETA deal was supposed to be ratified this fall but a recent decision by the EU to permit all member coun- tries a vote, could delay or even spoil it.
Canada remains focused on deals with the EU’s remain- ing member countries but Britian is moving on to new
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AUGUST 2016 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS
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