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Canada, UK agree to establish trade working group, expand defense collaboration
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on June 15, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
Company
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on June 15, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
Canada and the UK have agreed to form a trade working group to enhance economic ties and expand defense collaboration, focusing on digital trade and critical minerals.
By Promit Mukherjee
OTTAWA (Reuters) -Canada and the United Kingdom agreed on Sunday to set up a trade working group which will submit its recommendations to the prime ministers of the respective countries within the next six months, a joint statement by the two governments said.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrived in Canada for bilateral meetings with Prime Minister Mark Carney before the G7 leaders' summit in Alberta from Sunday to Tuesday.
Carney has been reaching out to allies to strengthen and diversify the country's trade as its industries, especially steel, aluminum and automobiles, face U.S. tariffs.
"We will establish a new structured UK-Canada Economic and Trade Working Group to deepen our existing trading relationship further," the joint statement by the two prime ministers said.
The working group would seek to address market access barriers, expand arrangements into areas such as digital trade, and explore cooperation to develop critical minerals and artificial intelligence infrastructure, the statement said.
While the UK is an important trading partner for Canada, it represents only a small share of Canada's exports. In 2024, the UK represented 3.6% of exports and 1.2% of imports for the country, according to the Conference Board of Canada.
Exports to the UK are mainly dominated by gold and energy products.
The joint statement also said that Canada would introduce legislation in the second half of the year to ratify the UK's accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a free trade group of 11 countries.
The group comprises Australia, Brunei, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam and Canada.
The UK gained access to nine countries under the Indo-Pacific trade treaty last year and is still awaiting its ratification by Canada and Mexico.
The two countries will also expand defense collaboration including support for Ukraine, the statement said.
(Reporting by Promit Mukherjee; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
The trade working group aims to deepen the existing trading relationship between Canada and the UK by addressing market access barriers and expanding into areas like digital trade.
In 2024, the UK represented 3.6% of Canada's exports and 1.2% of its imports.
Canada plans to introduce legislation to ratify the UK's accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) in the second half of the year.
The working group will explore cooperation in developing critical minerals and artificial intelligence, in addition to expanding digital trade.
The two countries will expand their defense collaboration, which includes support for Ukraine, as stated in their joint statement.
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