Canada’s High Commissioner to the U-K Ralph Goodale is back in Regina.
As a long time MP for Regina Wascana, as well as a former cabinet minister, Goodale says its nice to come back home for a visit.
He was speaking to the Canadian Club of Regina in an even live streamed on this web page, as well as SaskToday.ca.
One of the big responsibilities Goodale has is shepherding a new trade deal with the UK, since its “Brexit” from the European Union several years ago.
While there has been a lot of progress, Goodale says the British ended the talks in January with the drums of a national election in the UK starting to sound.
This past month saw a seismic shift in British politics with the Labour Party forming government for the first time in 17 years.
Goodale says 99 percent of our trade with the UK is tariff free and quota fee, and the goal is to get it to 100 percent. “We have a good foundation to build on, and we would like to see 100 percent tariff free, and quota free and I think the Brits would as well”
Goodale says there is one particular area he would like to see resolved, and that is Canadian exports of pork and beef to the UK. “From our Canadian point of view, the market access is great across the board, except for Canadian Beef and Pork”. Goodale went on to say “Right now there are 40 thousand tons of British meat products coming into Canada per year, but very little Canadian products that goes the other way. That’s because the UK has a set of non-tariff, non scientific trade barriers in place. We anxious to get those removed to Canadian producers can have access to the UK market, just like British producers have with Canada.”
