Trudeau predicts orderly Brexit with minimal trade, investment disruption

OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he is confident that Britain's exit from the European Union later today will be an orderly process with minimal disruption to Canadian trade and investment.

He says it is good that the EU and Britain have avoided the "threat" of a no-deal exit.

Britain and the EU now have 11 months to negotiate a deal including trade, fisheries, education, transportation and other areas, to avoid a so-called "hard Brexit" that many predict would have dire economic consequences.

Until the end of the year, Britain remains a member of the EU, and is still bound by the continent's sweeping free trade deal with Canada on goods and services.

In addition to negotiating with the EU, Britain is also planning to negotiate a series of bilateral deals with Canada, the United States, Australia, Japan and New Zealand before the end of the year.

Canada and the EU have held what has been billed as informal preliminary talks about rolling over elements of the Canada-EU trade pact into a bilateral deal, but no date for formal negotiations has been set.