Trade negotiations between Canada and the U.K. are at a standstill after the U.K. suspended talks last week.

The President of the Canadian Cattle Association Nathan Phinney says he's disappointed with the halt in negotiations, adding that Canadian beef exports into the area is a key issue right now.

" You know, we're hoping that there will be some real negotiations that take place and solve these non-tariff regulation barriers. It reiterates our concerns of not being willing to follow the science and the research and allow our product to come in. It's pretty lopsided trade right now with them having access to moving their product into Canada and we can't export. So I'm glad the Government of Canada took a position standing up for its producers here, saying that we will not tolerate that until you guys get this bi-lat (bi-lateral) issue resolved through these non-tariff barriers that we're facing."

Phinney points out that we need to see movement from the U.K. adding that if they have full access and we don't then we need to cut off their beef imports until this gets ratified.

"It's very lopsided trade and there's nothing free on the Canadian side of it that is in that deal. When you can't send any product to the country because they won't recognize your world-leading food safety systems. We have a major issue.  So hopefully they get back to the negotiating table sooner than later and and can resolve this. But if they can't, I think that is a position that we're willing to stand behind."

The U-K has also been in ongoing negotiations to be included in the CPTPP (The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership) which includes Canada. 

Phinney says all partners entered into that agreement with the same goals of free rules based trade, adding that its worked well for all 11 countries that are in it.