Canada in Talks With UK on Reaching Trade Deal With EU After Brexit Vote

Canada is in talks with the United Kingdom on the issue of reaching a trade agreement with the EU, as Ottawa has already discussed the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with Brussels and London could be in need of such experience following the Brexit vote, Canadian Minister of International Trade Chrystia Freeland said Friday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On Thursday, Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union said that he would like relationship between London and Brussels after the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union similar to the model framed by the CETA.

"We have been sharing at a technical level, you know some real details of exactly how CETA works… We have 300 trade negotiators in Canada. It certainly takes a big very expert team to negotiate trade agreements," Freeland told BBC.

She added that securing trade agreements similar to the CETA was "really complicated."

On June 23, the referendum was held in the United Kingdom, in which 51.9 percent of voters supported the country withdrawing from the European Union. At the same time Scotland, as well as Northern Ireland backed retaining membership of the 28-nation bloc, while England and Wales backed Brexit.

In 2013, the European Union and Canada reached a political agreement on the key elements of CETA, which stipulates free trade regime between Ottawa and the 28-nation bloc, however, the trade negotiating mandate was made public only in December 2015, sparking controversy over the extra secrecy surrounding it. The agreement is expected to be discussed together with the Strategic Partnership Agreement at the EU-Canada summit in October.