LONDON — Britain and Canada are pressing pause on negotiations for a new trade deal.
Officials representing Canadian Trade Minister Mary Ng and British Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch spoke Thursday and agreed to suspend talks following eight rounds that reached a stalemate late last year, three senior officials on both sides of the deal confirmed to POLITICO.
The negotiations to replace a post-Brexit rollover deal broke down after a long-running battle by Canadian farmers to get hormone-treated beef into Britain.
Britain has kept in place an EU ban on using growth hormones for cows to boost meat production — something Canada sees as lacking a scientific basis. Canadian beef producers, who use the method, have been lobbying hard for Britain to drop the ban.
The fight also led to British cheese farmers losing their preferred access to Canada’s market at the start of the year.
Both sides traded barbs in the aftermath of the pause.
“We’re trying to negotiate in good faith,” said a senior Canadian government official granted anonymity to discuss the talks. “But you know, you’ve got to come to the table and meet us halfway.”
“Canada seem to have lost sight of the bigger picture – the British and Canadian businesses who do £26bn worth of trade a year and the people they employ,” a U.K. government official who was also granted anonymity hit back.
“If Canada come back to table with a serious offer and desire to make progress we’re all ears, but in the meantime we’re going to focus on other trade deals that deliver for U.K. businesses,” the official added.
A U.K. government spokesperson said: “We have always said we will only negotiate trade deals that deliver for the British people. And we reserve the right to pause negotiations with any country if progress is not being made.
“We remain open to restarting talks with Canada in the future to build a stronger trading relationship that benefits businesses and consumers on both sides of the Atlantic.”
The Canadian beef lobby said it was “disappointed, but not surprised” by the outcome.
In a statement, the Canadian Cattle Association said farmers “stand behind the Government of Canada’s approach of drawing a hard line in the negotiations and defending Canadian beef producers.”
“The Canadian beef industry is a strong advocate of free and open trade,” the group added. “To avoid getting a bad trade deal for Canadians, we need trade partners that want to trade fairly and not use rules and regulations to their own advantage.”
Car chaos?
The pause will also send shivers through the U.K. car industry.
The right to use EU parts in British-made vehicles without facing tariffs expires on April 1 under the existing U.K.-Canada trade deal which rolled over after Brexit in 2021. The U.K. had been trying to secure an extension as part of the talks with Canada.
The U.K.’s automotive supply chain is “embedded” within the European automotive industry, Mike Hawes, chief executive of the SMMT British automotive lobby, told journalists this week.
Cars are the U.K.’s top goods export to Canada, according to government data, valued at £745.8 million (€874 million) in the year to Q2 2023.