What’s a ‘Canada-style’ commerce deal?

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has stated with regards to commerce with the EU after Brexit: “We would like a complete free commerce settlement, just like Canada’s”.

The EU’s settlement with Canada is named the Complete Financial and Commerce Settlement, or Ceta for brief.

The EU started negotiating with Canada in 2009, and Ceta provisionally got here into pressure in 2017, though it has not but been signed off by all of the EU member states.

What does Ceta do?

We have heard rather a lot about wanting a “zero-tariff, zero-quota” deal between the UK and the EU. Ceta doesn’t do this.

Ceta removes most, however not all, tariffs (that is taxes on imports) on items traded between the EU and Canada. Tariffs stay on poultry, meat and eggs.

It additionally will increase quotas (that is the quantity of a product that may be exported with out further prices) however doesn’t do away with them altogether. For instance, quotas on EU cheese exports to Canada improve from 18,500 tonnes to 31,972 tonnes a yr.

It does little for the commerce in providers and specifically virtually nothing for the commerce in monetary providers, which is essential for the UK financial system.

It additionally doesn’t take away border checks, so there’s nonetheless a chance that items should be examined at ports to verify they meet regulatory necessities, and their paperwork is so as.

What does it say about requirements?

Ceta protects EU “geographical indications”, that means for instance which you could solely make Parma ham in Italy and camembert cheese in France, and Canada cannot import one thing that calls itself camembert from some other nation.

They’ve additionally agreed to open up authorities contracts to one another, so Canadian firms might bid to construct French railways, for instance.

There’s additionally co-operation between the 2 nations on requirements, so a bit of kit made in an EU nation can undergo all its security and high quality checks there, with no need to have them repeated in Canada – and vice versa.

Ceta additionally permits skilled {qualifications} to be recognised each in Canada and the EU, making it simpler, for instance, for architects or accountants to work in each locations.

And it aligns Canadian guidelines in some areas of copyright and patents with these of the EU.

Is the UK’s commerce with the EU like Canada’s?

Nations which are nearer to one another are likely to commerce extra, particularly in items, and that is the case with the UK and the EU.

The UK exported £291bn of products and providers to different EU nations in 2018, which was 45% of all UK exports.

It imported £357bn of products and providers from the EU, which was 53% of all UK imports.

However, Canada exported 46.2bn Canadian {dollars} (£26.7bn) of products and providers to the EU in 2017, which was 7.9% of its exports.

It imported 63.6bn Canadian {dollars} of products and providers to the EU, which was 10.5% of its imports.

What’s an Australian-style deal?

The prime minister additionally talked about having an association with the EU just like Australia’s.

The EU doesn’t have a free commerce cope with Australia. They’re in negotiations for one, however they presently function primarily on World Commerce Organisation (WTO) guidelines.

• Reality Check: Why does a UK-EU trade deal matter?
• Reality Check: What does a ‘WTO Brexit’ mean?

There was an EU-Australia Partnership Framework agreed in 2008, which reduces obstacles to commerce, however was not a free commerce settlement.

So, buying and selling on an identical foundation to Australia could be largely the identical as buying and selling underneath WTO guidelines. In different phrases, it is one other approach of claiming the UK would go away with no commerce deal in place.

What claims do you want BBC Reality Check to investigate? Get in touch

Read more from Reality Check

Follow us on Twitter