Consultation on Future Free Trade Agreements: Summary of Responses

Thursday 18th July 2019 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade (Dr Liam Fox)]

Last summer, we launched four 14-week long public consultations providing citizens and businesses across the UK and overseas with the opportunity to give their views on potential future free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations with the United States, Australia, New Zealand and on the UK potentially seeking accession to the comprehensive and progressive agreement for trans-Pacific partnership (CPTPP).

Today, I will place a summary of responses received for each consultation exercise in the Library of the House. I will also publish these online on gov.uk.

The public consultations attracted significant interest with 601,121 responses received across all four consultations. In view of the need to ensure that due consideration is given to each submission, we will publish the Government response at a later date but before any formal trade negotiations begin, alongside an outline approach which sets out our high-level negotiation objectives and will explain how these have been informed by the consultation responses.

The Government are committed to ensuring a transparent and inclusive trade policy, which supports the interests of consumers and businesses across the whole of the UK. The Government will continue to engage with the public, businesses and other stakeholders in order to understand their views and to help develop UK trade policy.

[HCWS1735]