As it hurtles toward what could be a messy exit from the European Union, Britain is hoping to hear some fresh trade reassurances from Canada at the upcoming G7 Summit in Biarritz, France, say officials in the diplomatic community and experts in international affairs.<\/p>\n
Boris Johnson, the new British prime minister, is expected to hold a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the weekend gathering of the world’s leading industrial economies.<\/p>\n The timing has yet to be hammered down, but the British are \u2014\u00a0according to multiple sources in the diplomatic community\u00a0\u2014\u00a0keen to talk to Canada.<\/p>\n The recent diplomatic strain over the U.K.’s decision to strip British citizenship from Jack Letts\u00a0\u2014\u00a0known in U.K. media as ‘Jihadi Jack’ \u2014 is not expected to get in the way of the meeting. The decision by Johnson’s predecessor leaves Canada in the awkward position of having to deal with the British-Canadian Letts, who is in a Syrian prison after being accused of belonging to the Islamic State.<\/p>\n Trudeau and Johnson are meeting at a time when both Britain and EU have been hardening their positions on Brexit \u2014 perhaps irreconcilably\u00a0\u2014\u00a0as the Oct. 31 deadline for the U.K.’s withdrawal from the European Union rapidly approaches.\u00a0On Wednesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel met with Johnson and gave him 30 days to come up with a plan to address the major stumbling block of a Brexit deal with the EU.<\/p>\n The business community in Britain is looking for a safety net and had pinned some of its hopes on a bridging agreement with Canada \u2014\u00a0something that would get them through until a full bilateral trade deal is negotiated between the two countries.<\/p>\n At a minimum, Britain is hoping to hear that Canada is committed to the terms of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), which was negotiated before the Brexit movement gained momentum.<\/p>\n Colin Robertson, vice-president at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute and a former Canadian diplomat, said it’s in Canada’s best interest, at the moment, to be circumspect with the U.K.<\/p>\n Johnson also is\u00a0sitting down with French President Emanuel Macron for a pre-summit conversation\u00a0Thursday, but Robertson said there are still so many unknowns about the U.K.’s future relationship with the EU that it’s best for Trudeau to keep his options open and ask some tough questions.<\/p>\n “Of course we want to negotiate a bridging agreement,” said Robertson. “But what are we bridging? And what is your situation going to be on October 31? And what is your relationship going to be with European Union?”<\/p>\n British and Canadian negotiators held extensive talks to come up with a bridging agreement, which would see the terms of Canada’s existing European Union trade deal held in place following Brexit.<\/p>\n CBC News reported last month that a finalized proposal, through which the terms of CETA would apply to a post-Brexit\u00a0Britain, was put in front of the Liberal cabinet a year ago.<\/p>\n They were “90 per cent” of the way toward a deal, an official in the diplomatic community said recently.<\/p>\n The British inadvertently put the deal on ice when, in an emergency move to protect British consumers and businesses from sudden price shocks, the Conservative government of then-prime minister Theresa May published a “temporary” list offering any country \u2014 not just those with pre-existing trade deals \u2014 tariff-free access for 87 per cent of what the U.K. imports. The offer came without a requirement for a reciprocal tariff cuts for British exports.<\/p>\n “I don’t think we have to decide” at the summit, said Robertson. “One thing in diplomacy\u00a0\u2014 if you don’t have to make a decision, rarely do you make one.”<\/p>\nU.K. seeking trade security<\/h2>\n