An Act to implement the Protocol on the Accession of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership

This bill puts into Canadian law the agreement allowing the United Kingdom to join the CPTPP, the trans-Pacific trade pact that already includes Canada, Australia, Japan, Mexico and several other countries. It does this mainly by updating a series of existing federal laws so that wherever they refer to the CPTPP, they now also automatically cover the UK's accession to it.

The most noticeable practical change is in the Customs Tariff, which creates a new "Comprehensive and Progressive United Kingdom Tariff" category. This sets out preferential customs duty rates for goods imported from the UK, with many products becoming duty-free immediately and others having their tariffs phased down gradually over a few years (by 2026, 2027, 2028 or 2029, depending on the product). Detailed lists of affected products and their step-by-step tariff reductions are included as schedules to the bill. The government also gets authority to extend these preferential UK tariff rates to goods from other CPTPP countries by regulation.

The bill also makes technical updates to the Financial Administration Act, the Commercial Arbitration Act, the Trust and Loan Companies Act, the Bank Act and the Insurance Companies Act, essentially adjusting definitions and schedules (such as the list of countries treated as "trade agreement" countries for foreign bank and insurance rules) so they properly recognize the UK's new status under CPTPP. Finally, it amends the CPTPP Implementation Act itself to formally approve the UK's accession protocol and requires a parliamentary committee to review how the UK's membership and this law are working every three years. The changes take effect on a date to be set later by the federal cabinet.

This bill creates a new Comprehensive and Progressive United Kingdom Tariff (CPUKT) under the Customs Tariff, sets staged duty-reduction schedules for goods from the UK, and gives Cabinet order-making powers to extend tariff benefits and amend related schedules.

• Tariff-setting power — the Governor in Council (Cabinet), on the Minister's recommendation, may by order extend CPUKT entitlement to goods from any CPTPP country, specify effective dates, exempt goods from standard conditions, and prescribe replacement conditions; such orders may be made retroactive, though never to before the Agreement takes effect between Canada and the UK.
• Schedule amendment power — Cabinet may, by order, add, delete or amend items in Schedule IV of the Bank Act (the list of countries/territories qualifying for "regulated foreign entity" treatment) "for the purpose of implementing Canada's international trade obligations," with no further criteria stated in the text.
• Automatic duty reductions — for goods coded X78, X79 or X80, customs duties fall on fixed calendar dates (2026–2029) to a final rate of "Free", with detailed rounding rules that can push any rate below 2% straight to zero, without further parliamentary action once the schedule is set.
• Coming into force — the whole Act takes effect on a day fixed by Cabinet order, not automatically upon royal assent, leaving the timing of implementation to the executive.
• Oversight — a House of Commons committee must conduct a review of the UK's accession and the Act's operation every three years and report findings and recommended changes to the House within six months, but the report is not subject to a vote and triggers no automatic legal consequence.
• Definitional changes — several statutes (Financial Administration Act, Commercial Arbitration Act, Trust and Loan Companies Act, Bank Act, Insurance Companies Act) have their definitions and schedules updated so that references to the CPTPP automatically include the UK accession protocol, extending existing exceptions and rules to UK-linked entities without new votes on each instance.