‘We’re watching UK referendum vote closely’: Canada’s chief CETA negotiator

With the United Kingdom set to vote in a referendum on European Union membership [on 23 of] June, Canadian and British officials have discussed the implications of a Brexit on the Canada-EU trade deal’s implementation, Canada’s chief negotiator — Steve Verheul — told the international trade committee...

Weeks after Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland and her European counterpart announced the agreement’s legal scrub was finished, preparing the way for the ratification process to begin within months, ...Verheul was asked to explain how a UK decision to leave the EU might affect that process.

“The Brits are going through a process where they might remove themselves from the EU — what kind of a hand grenade is that going to throw into the agreement?” Conservative trade critic and former agriculture minister Gerry Ritz asked Verheul...

If it does come to pass, Verheul added, the UK will first have to negotiate an arrangement with the EU. They’ll then try to replicate the agreements the EU has so they don’t lose market access.

Tracey Ramsey, the NDP’s trade critic, asked Verheul to address another outstanding CETA question: will the agreement need to be ratified by each of the 28 member states?

The EU has yet to determine whether the agreement will touch on member state competences and require them each to ratify it individually, Verheul explained.

...Even if that does turn out to be the case, Verheul didn’t think it would be much of a problem.

“After the agreement is approved by the European Parliament, the EU will pursue something called provisional application, which will allow them to put in place probably 95 per cent of the agreement. And then member states could subsequently ratify, if that’s required, over a period of time that would be of less concern to us,” he said.

This has been excerpted from 10 March 2016 edition of iPolitics.