British negotiators walked away from trade talks with Canada Thursday — a dramatic development that taps the brakes on a bilateral trade deal between the two Commonwealth nations that has been years in the making.
After Brexit, an interim agreement kept tariff-free British cheese on Canadian shelves for three years. That more permissive regime expired at the end of last year.
Negotiators had been working on a longer-term bilateral trade deal to replace the liberalized trade the U.K. enjoyed under the terms of Canada’s Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with the European Union.
In the aftermath of the renegotiation of the former North American Free Trade Agreement, which saw changes to supply-managed sectors, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised dairy farmers that no more slices of Canada’s domestic market would be served up to exporters in future negotiations.
“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,” a U.K. government spokesperson said in a statement to CBC News.
“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.”
A statement from the UK Government on our decision to pause Free Trade Negotiations with Canada. <a href=”https://t.co/HnnFzc8mGs”>pic.twitter.com/HnnFzc8mGs</a>
Trade Minister Mary Ng told reporters in Ottawa Thursday afternoon that she had reached out to her British counterpart, Kemi Badenoch, to express Canada’s disappointment at their decision to pause the talks.
“We are at the table. Frankly, I would say that we continue to be at the table,” she said. “We’re always going to look for the best deal for Canadians. It’s what we have always done. And this time is no different.”
“I’m very confident that we will be able to get back to the table and I would encourage my colleagues in the United Kingdom to get back to the table, because negotiating is how we get a deal.”
Trade minister ‘disappointed’ by pause in trade negotiations with U.K.
Minister of Export Promotion, International Trade and Economic Development Mary Ng says she’s ‘very confident’ the two sides will get back to the table.
Dairy farmers want to keep their supply-managed and heavily protected sector out of this deal.
Instead, representatives from the Dairy Farmers of Canada have argued the U.K. should be negotiating with the EU to recover its share (15 per cent, based on British population) of the market access Canada handed over to foreign competitors under CETA.
“How is this the Canadian government’s problem to solve?” wrote Jacques Lefebvre, DFC’s CEO, in an email to CBC News.
The Canadian Cattle Association said it was “disappointed but not surprised” by the U.K.’s decision.
“The Canadian beef industry is a strong advocate of free and open trade. 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,” president Nathan Phinney said in a statement.
Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay told reporters Canada wouldn’t agree to a deal that wasn’t good for Canadian farmers.
“Supply management is not on the table,” he said, adding that the ministers would rather officials be talking at the negotiating table about these issues instead of talking to the media.
The ministers said the dairy sector is not holding up a British deal. “There’s a number of issues at the table,” MacAulay said.
Automotive negotiations also stalled
Talks are also faltering on drafting new rules for automotive trade between the two countries.
European and Canadian-assembled automobiles enjoy preferential access to each other’s consumer markets under the CETA that’s been in place with the European Union since 2017. The EU deal lays out “rules of origin” that determine what constitutes a European automotive export for the purposes of lowering tariffs into Canada.
Workers on the production line at Chrysler’s assembly plant in Windsor, Ont., work on a minivan on January 18, 2011. (Geoff Robins/Canadian Press)
Since the United Kingdom is no longer part of the European Union, those rules expire on March 1. Exports from the now-independent British automotive industry are set to lose their preferential access to the Canadian market.
Automotive trade in and out of Canada is subject to a tangled web of trade agreements, each with different rules: CETA for the EU, the revised North American trade agreement for the U.S. and Mexico (known as CUSMA), the Comprehensive and Progressive agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership that liberalized automotive trade with Japan, and Canada’s bilateral trade agreement with South Korea.
British vehicles risk landing outside these competitive, tariff-free supply chains if the two sides can’t find a way forward.
Riskier for U.K. than for Canada?
Failure to reach a deal with Canada before these cheese and automotive deadlines pass could hurt British exports. From Canada’s strategic perspective, there’s less immediate economic urgency to reach a deal.
A specific quantity of Canadian beef and pork exports was supposed to gain access to the European and British markets when CETA took effect, but imports have been held to practically zero because Canadian standards aren’t recognized as compliant.
Ng told reporters that this friction in the bilateral talks with the U.K. is a issue separate from Canada’s ratification process for the British to join the CPTPP. The final terms and text for that accession were agreed to in the summer, but each current party to that trade agreement must complete its own ratification process. In Canada, that requires a parliamentary consultation process at committee and the passage of implementation legislation before cabinet ratifies the expanded treaty.
Ng said that at the moment, the government is focused on ratification of the revised Canada-Ukraine trade agreement — that bill has yet to clear Parliament.
In the absence of the bespoke bilateral agreement these negotiations were trying to land, Canada’s current trade continuity agreement with the United Kingdom will stand indefinitely to keep tariffs off other products shipping between the two countries. But this “CETA rollover” deal was intended to be only a transitional arrangement until something more comprehensive could be worked out.
Negotiators have completed eight rounds of talks since 2022 and were scheduled to meet next month in the U.K. Those meetings now will not proceed.
The United Kingdom is Canada’s third-largest trading partner, worth over $46 billion in two-way goods and services trade in 2022.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says wholesale sales, excluding petroleum, petroleum products, and other hydrocarbons and excluding oilseed and grain, rose 0.4 per cent to $82.7 billion in July.
The increase came as sales in the miscellaneous subsector gained three per cent to reach $10.5 billion in July, helped by strength in the agriculture supplies industry group, which rose 9.2 per cent.
The food, beverage and tobacco subsector added 1.7 per cent to total $15 billion in July.
The personal and household goods subsector fell 2.5 per cent to $12.1 billion.
In volume terms, overall wholesale sales rose 0.5 per cent in July.
Statistics Canada started including oilseed and grain as well as the petroleum and petroleum products subsector as part of wholesale trade last year, but is excluding the data from monthly analysis until there is enough historical data.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa sustained a concussion for the third time in his NFL career, leaving his team’s game Thursday night against Buffalo after running into defensive back Damar Hamlin and hitting the back of his head against the turf.
Tagovailoa remained down for about two minutes before getting to his feet and walking to the sideline after the play in the third quarter. He made his way to the tunnel not long afterward, looking into the stands before smiling and departing toward the locker room.
The Dolphins needed almost no time before announcing it was a concussion. The team said he had two during the 2022 season, and Tagovailoa was diagnosed with another concussion when he was a college player at Alabama.
Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said Tagovailoa would get “proper procedural evaluation” and “appropriate care” on Friday.
“The furthest thing from my mind is, ‘What is the timeline?’ We just need to evaluate and just worry about my teammate, like the rest of the guys are,” McDaniel said. “We’ll get more information tomorrow and take it day by day from here.”
Some players saw Tagovailoa in the locker room after the game and said they were encouraged. Tagovailoa spoke with some players and then went home after the game, McDaniel said.
“I have a lot of love for Tua, built a great relationship with him,” said quarterback Skylar Thompson, who replaced Tagovailoa after the injury. “You care about the person more than the player and everybody in the organization would say the same thing. Just really praying for Tua and hopefully everything will come out all right.”
Tagovailoa signed a four-year, $212 million extension before this season — a deal that makes him one of the highest-paid players in the NFL — and was the NFL’s leading passer in Week 1 this season. Tagovailoa left with the Dolphins trailing 31-10, and that was the final score.
“If you know Tua outside of football, you can’t help but feel for him,” Bills quarterback Josh Allen said on Amazon following the game. “He’s a great football player but he’s an even greater human being. He’s one of the best humans on the planet. I’ve got a lot of love for him and I’m just praying for him and his family, hoping everything’s OK. But it’s tough, man. This game of football that we play, it’s got its highs and it’s got its lows — and this is one of the lows.”
Tagovailoa’s college years and first three NFL seasons were marred by injury, though he positioned himself for a big pay bump with an injury-free and productive 2023 as he led the Dolphins into the playoffs. He threw for 29 touchdowns and a league-best 4,624 yards last year.
When, or if, he can come back this season is anyone’s guess. Tagovailoa said in April 2023 that the concussions he had in the 2022 season left him contemplating his playing future. “I think I considered it for a time,” he said then, when asked if he considered stepping away from the game to protect himself.
McDaniel said it’s not his place to say if Tagovailoa should return to football. “He’ll be evaluated and we’ll have conversations and progress as appropriate,” McDaniel said.
Tagovailoa was hurt Thursday on a fourth-down keeper with about 4:30 left in the third. He went straight ahead into Hamlin and did not slide, leading with his right shoulder instead.
Hamlin was the player who suffered a cardiac arrest after making a tackle during a Monday night game in January 2023 at Cincinnati, causing the NFL to suspend a pivotal game that quickly lost significance in the aftermath of a scary scene that unfolded in front of a national television audience.
Tagovailoa wound up on his back, both his hands in the air and Bills players immediately pointed at him as if to suggest there was an injury. Dolphins center Aaron Brewer quickly did the same, waving to the sideline.
Tagovailoa appeared to be making a fist with his right hand as he lay on the ground. It was movement consistent with something that is referred to as the “fencing response,” which can be common after a traumatic brain injury.
Tagovailoa eventually got to his feet. McDaniel grabbed the side of his quarterback’s head and gave him a kiss on the cheek as Tagovailoa departed. Thompson came into the game to take Tagovailoa’s spot.
“I love Tua on and off the football field,” Bills edge Von Miller said. “I’m a huge fan of him. I can empathize and sympathize with him because I’ve been there. I wish him the best.”
Tagovailoa’s history with concussions — and how he has since worked to avoid them — is a huge part of the story of his career, and now comes to the forefront once again.
He had at least two concussions during the 2022 season. He was hurt in a Week 3 game against Buffalo and cleared concussion protocol, though he appeared disoriented on that play but returned to the game.
The NFL later changed its concussion protocol to mandate that if a player shows possible concussion symptoms — including a lack of balance or stability — he must sit out the rest of the game.
Less than a week later, in a Thursday night game at Cincinnati, Tagovailoa was concussed on a scary hit that briefly knocked him unconscious and led to him being taken off the field on a stretcher.
His second known concussion of that season came in a December game against Green Bay, and he didn’t play for the rest of the 2022 season. After that, Tagovailoa began studying ways where he may be able to fall more safely and protect himself against further injury — including studying jiu-jitsu.
“I’m not worried about anything that’s out of my hands,” McDaniel said. “I’m just worried about the human being.”
TORSBY, Sweden (AP) — David Beckham and former England coach Roy Hodgson were among the soccer dignitaries who attended the funeral of Sven-Goran Eriksson on Friday in the Swedish manager’s small hometown of Torsby.
Eriksson’s wooden coffin was covered in white flowers and surrounded by six tall candles and other floral wreaths as the ceremony began inside the 600-seat Fryksande church.
“It is a day of grief but also a day of thankfulness,” the priest, Ingela Älvskog, told those in attendance.
Beckham, who arrived by private jet on Thursday, greeted Eriksson’s 95-year-old father Sven and other family members with hugs inside the church before the funeral started.
Eriksson became England’s first foreign-born coach when he led the national team from 2001-06, and made Beckham his captain.
Eriksson, who also won trophies at club level in Italy, Portugal and Sweden, died on Aug. 26 at the age of 76, eight months after he revealed he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and had at most one year to live.
Some 200 seats in the neo-Gothic church from 1898 were reserved for his family, friends and players from his career in the football world, according to his agent. The remaining seats were open for the public, according to Eriksson’s wish, with a big screen set up outside the church where hundreds more gathered to watch the ceremony. The funeral was also broadcast live on some Swedish media websites.
The wooden coffin was wheeled in by pallbearers at the church Friday morning as fog wrapped Torsby — a town of about 4,000 people located about 310 kilometers (193 miles) west of Stockholm. Next to the casket was a photo of Eriksson on a small table. The floral wreaths included ones sent by FIFA and Lazio, the Italian team that Eriksson led to the Serie A title in 2000.
The ceremony began with somber piano and organ music, but later took on a more upbeat note with Swedish singer Charlotta Birgersson performing Elton John’s song “Candle In The Wind” and then “My Way” in a duet with Johan Birgersson, who later intoned the popular Italian song “Volare” after the family had gathered around the casket to lay flowers.
Beckham also visited Eriksson in Sweden in June to say goodbye. Others attending the funeral included the Swedish coach’s longtime partner Nancy Dell’Olio. Eriksson’s agent had said that guests from England, Italy and Spain were expected.
After the funeral, the casket was carried out of the church by eight men to the hearse. The guests then walked in a procession accompanying the coffin to a nearby museum where speeches and eulogies to the coach fondly known as “Svennis” were planned on an outdoor stage. A brass band played during the procession through Torsby, including the tune “You never walk alone” from the musical “Carousel” which has become the anthem of Liverpool, the club Eriksson supported since childhood.
The local soccer club Torsby IF, where Eriksson started his career in the 1960s, wrote on its webpage that “you also showed your greatness by always being yourself, the caring Svennis who talked to everyone and took the time, for big and small, asking how things were and how the football was going. We will miss you.”
