While the proposed Canada-U.K. Trade Continuity Agreement may maintain business as usual between the two countries for the next few years, lawyers should not assume that the eventual comprehensive trade agreement will maintain the status quo, a cross-border tax lawyer has said.
Alan Kenigsberg, Toronto-based partner at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, said that, while Bill C-18, an Act to Implement the Trade Continuity Agreement between Canada and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (TCA) intends to continue the rights and obligations between Canada and the U.K. post-Brexit, lawyers should take note of the possible differences in origin quotas in the TCA, as compared with the Canada-European Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), which ceased to apply as of Jan. 1.
“Further, when reviewing this agreement, it should be kept in mind that the agreement is only temporary in nature,” Kenigsberg said. “When the new comprehensive trade agreement is concluded, while it will likely be very similar to CETA, there are almost certainly going to be some changes.”
