With effect from 1 January, the UK has no longer tariff-free access to the Canadian market for cheese exports. The UK and Canada had agreed to rollover the CETA deal that governed trade while the UK was a member of the EU, pending the negotiation of a bespoke UK-Canada trade deal.

Part of the rollover deal was that the UK would continue to have tariff-free access for cheese exports until the end of 2023. For future exports, the UK will have to compete with other countries to use a small tariff-free quota, which is primarily used by Switzerland and Norway. Otherwise it will have to pay full tariffs.

Canada is a small export market, taking less than 3% of UK cheese exports. However, as with food exports to the EU, the impact will be most felt by smaller, speciality exporters and it had been hoped that Canada would extend the rollover period for tariff-free cheese until the bespoke UK-Canada trade deal was agreed.

There are significant difficulties with this negotiation. The Canadian beef industry and farmers are insistent that any trade deal with the UK must provide access for beef from Canadian cattle that have been fed growth-promoting hormones. These are banned in the EU, much to the annoyance of Canada’s beef farmers and processing industry, who point to negligible amounts of beef exports to the EU despite having a trade deal since 2017.

The UK has retained this ban post Brexit and the Canadian beef industry are insisting that it is removed in any future Canada-UK trade deal. They are also lobbying for Canada to reject UK membership of the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans Pacific Partnership which the UK joined last year.