Canada Should ‘Take Step Back’ on CETA Trade Deal With EU Amid Brexit

Canada should reconsider its engagement in the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) since Ottawa’s largest trading partner, the United Kingdom, voted to exit the European Union, a move also known as Brexit, the advocacy group Council of Canadians said in a release on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — In 2013, the European Union and Canada reached the CETA, which stipulates free trade between Ottawa and the EU bloc of countries.

"Given the uncertainty around Brexit and the fact that our largest EU trading partner is no longer in CETA, the Council of Canadians calls on the federal government to take a step back and do a proper cost-benefit analysis of CETA," the release stated.

Council of Canadians National Chairperson Maude Barlow said CETA is a "mixed agreement" that is likely to require the approval of national parliaments.

"Having worked with European civil society organizations, it’s clear that there is a growing resistance to CETA, and that its ratification is not the cakewalk that Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland suggests it will be," Barlow noted.

CETA is expected to be discussed together with the Strategic Partnership Agreement at the EU-Canada summit in October. The deal was signed earlier in 2016 and should come into force in 2017.