Canada Trade Deal

Trade policy and trade deals have become rather more important in farming thinking since the Brexit result.  An example of the possibilities and the pitfalls is the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) which is a proposed free trade agreement between Canada and the EU.  If approved, it would remove 98% of the tariffs between the two.  Formal negotiations began in May 2009 and concluded in August 2014.  It can be seen that it took five years to get a deal, rather calling into question whether a UK:EU deal could be done in two.  Furthermore, an announcement on the 5^th July indicated that, rather than being approved by EU Member States and the European Parliament, the deal would first have to be ratified by every national Parliament.  As devolved assemblies are included, the whole deal could, for example, be vetoed by the national Parliament of Flanders.  The ratification process could take up to five years to complete.  Again, this would not seem to bode well for the prospects of a UK deal, which is likely to be more complex and more controversial than that with Canada.