Status: Ratified 8 November 2018
The United Kingdom has a unicameral system, requiring the House of Commons to ratify CETA. CETA ratification was led by Prime Minister Theresa May and her Conservative Party’s parliamentary majority. The House of Commons approved the ratification of CETA in June 2018, with formal notification of ratification in November 2018.
The provisional application of CETA to the United Kingdom ended when the UK left the EU on January 31, 2020. Bilateral trade between Canada and the UK is now governed by the Canada-UK Trade Continuity Agreement.
Public debate
Contestation of CETA’s ratification in the UK was limited. Opponents of CETA criticized the investor-state dispute settlement provisions and its effects on regulatory standards. The main political opposition, the Labour Party, were largely in favour of CETA but had concerns regarding the effects of the investor-state dispute settlement provisions. Opposition CSOs included trade unions, environmental groups, and consumer advocacy organizations, including Trades Union Congress, Trade Justice Movement, People Before Profit, and the
Campaign against Climate Change.
Trade data
The United Kingdom had a trade surplus of $12.072 million deficit with Canada in 2020 (Statistics Canada). In 2020, imports from Canada were $19.9 billion and exports to Canada were 7.84 billion. Between 2016 and 2019, Canadian exports to the United Kingdom increased by $2.7 billion, from $17 billion to $19.8 billion. Canadian imports from the United Kingdom increased by $969 million, from $8.26 billion to 9.27 billion (Statistics Canada)
Sources
Corporate Europe Observatory. (November 2016). European and Canadian civil society groups call for rejection of CETA. Link
Eschbach, A. The Ratification Process in EU Member States – A presentation with particular consideration of the TTIP and CETA free trade agreements. Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law. Link
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