It's a pleasure to be with you this afternoon.
From our perspective in London, certainly we are seeing here in the United Kingdom that it is very interested in exploring the opportunity for an independent trade policy by which they will have more flexibility and more control over their trade policy after they have left the European Union. Of course, they're in a transition period now. As of January 1, they will be fully out of the European Union, out of the transition period.
Therefore, as Mr. Forsyth was saying, they have launched negotiations. Obviously they have the negotiations with the EU as a priority, the continuity agreements or these transitional agreements with parties that already have an agreement with the European Union, but they have identified the United States, Australia and New Zealand as really priority targets for bilateral trade negotiations.
Having been through the Canada-U.S.-Mexico agreement, we know, and Mr. Verheul knows better than all of us, the challenges of negotiating with such a significant trade partner. Also, the political events in the United States will also have an impact on the timing of negotiations.
Our objective here in the U.K. is to support Canadian businesses, Canadian exporters, to pursue whatever market opportunities they choose. We have a trade commissioner service. My senior trade commissioner, Nathalie Dubé, is also with us this afternoon and can talk about some of those services.
Really, I think the objective is to make sure we have the right framework in place. That's what a continuity or a transitional trade agreement will provide, the continuity of the benefits that we have through the CETA, and then really to be able to promote the opportunity of the U.K. as a business destination and make sure that we're supporting the development of those business relationships and really being ahead of the game. That's really our strategy here in terms of trying to make sure that we have solidified our advantages in this marketplace.