Free Trade Agreement: Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway

Lord Grantchester Excerpts

Thursday 14th October 2021 Lords Chamber

My final point is about the consultation. The Minister knows well enough that it has been raised on many occasions, in the Trade Bill and on other agreements, that the UK Government should genuinely be much more open with our devolved Administrations when it comes to consultation. I completely understand that the Scottish Government have a very different narrative going forward with regard to the situation with the single market, but that is not an excuse for the Government to not share negotiating texts, when 84% of UK animal and fish exports, 67%—£150 million-worth—of petrol and petroleum products, £155 million-worth, or 40%, of general industrial machinery, and 42% of iron and steel exports to Norway and Ireland are sourced from Scotland. I could understand that if the Government believed that trade agreements have very little impact on our nations, but, when there are agreements that have very significant consequences, it really is incumbent on the Government finally to have a change of approach, to be much more open and to consult in a genuinely free and open way at the outset. That would mean that all parts of the UK would be likely to have a much better deal at the end of it.

[Lord Grantchester (Lab)]

I thank the noble Earl, Lord Kinnoull, for the timely report of his European Affairs Committee on this trade agreement and for his excellent introduction. The report supplements the earlier scrutiny provided by your Lordships’ International Agreements Committee in February this year before the signing with Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. This deal has been categorised by David Henig, director of the European Centre for International Political Economy, as

“a pretty bog standard Free Trade Agreement, with some level of tariff reduction and other preferential access against WTO terms”.

Of course, deals with our European neighbours are important as we want good trade deals that grow our economy, stimulate sectors and add to the prosperity of our communities by upholding our British values. But let us give this a closer look.

There seems to be a bit of a competition with Japan regarding whether its deal or this deal can be said to represent the first new post-Brexit trade agreement. The Minister will remember the debates during the passage of the then Trade Bill in 2019, which he emphasised was a continuity Bill, when many proposals were made to modernise this procedure and the way the UK would approach trade deals in the future. The Government refused to go further than the procedure of the CRaG Act, with some enhancements. However, they know that this Act was part of the process for parliamentary scrutiny when the UK was a member state of the EU. As the noble Earl’s report stated at paragraph 9:

“Although this agreement is substantially a new trade agreement, the Government has not adopted the approach to parliamentary scrutiny it is applying to other new free trade agreements”.


The Government published a parliamentary report more usually featured alongside other continuity agreements. The objective in this supposedly new deal is to replicate as far as possible the effects of the UK’s existing trade agreement. All this means that this agreement has not been subject to the same levels of transparency and scrutiny as other new trade agreements. In addition, materials and memoranda published alongside the trade agreement appear to have been produced in haste.

I therefore ask: have the Government yet decided on their blueprint of how they will undertake trade agreements? Do they yet have a consistent approach? The noble Earl, Lord Kinnoull, mentioned the new proposals outlined in the latest report from the International Agreements Committee. As he asked, it would be illuminating if the Minister could make some initial comments on this.

Meanwhile, it can be considered how this agreement reflects a modern approach to trade deals. This model has many expected elements, notably chapters on trade in goods, trade in services and investments, government procurement, intellectual property, cross-border trade, customs and trade remedies. In view of the many previous discussions, it is to be welcomed that this model includes important sanitary and phytosanitary measures to maintain levels of protection for human, animal and plant life and health, with co-operation commitments on animal welfare, AMR and sustainable food systems. The tariff reductions are also welcomed as part of the usual bartering. According to Erna Solberg, outgoing Prime Minister of Norway, Norway has

“given on cheese, but we got a little more on fish”.

There are some very worthwhile new features to congratulate the Government on achieving, but, regrettably, many notable omissions and inconsistencies. First, it is good to note the inclusion of labour standards and so refreshing to see the chapters on women’s economic empowerment and trade. Can the Minister confirm that these will now become universal and included in all future trade deals?

Also to be noted is the chapter on the environment, including climate law. Under paragraph 93 of the department’s parliamentary report, the agreement

“sets out provisions which seek to implement the Paris Agreement, cut greenhouse gas emissions and to promote trade and investment to grow the low carbon economy”.

This includes commitments to net zero, renewable energy, CCUS and hydrogen technologies. If this is to be the new model for future trade deals, which at last we can celebrate, can the Minister confirm that the newly proposed agreement in principle with Australia will also contain strict protocols on climate change in its final drafts, which are now being drawn up? With COP 26 only a couple of weeks away, I cannot stress enough to the noble Lord the urgency with which this must become part of everyday business for the Government.

The most serious omission, most notable by its absence, is the inclusion of a human rights clause. The Government have been repeatedly called on to explain their policy on the inclusion of human rights in trade agreements, with the Government agreeing to their importance but, yet again, failing to implement any commitment. On these Benches, we believe that the protection of human rights is fundamental to British values and our way of life and is to be included in how we trade. The Joint Committee on Human Rights declared that there was

“a strong case for requiring minimum standard processes, practices and clauses to protect and promote human rights in all international agreements”.

Can the Minister explain why this is excluded from this trade deal? While I am sure that there will be no concern when it comes to trade with our Scandinavian and near neighbours, what precedent does this set for future trade agreements? Can the Minister clarify whether human rights clauses are to be a standard inclusion in trade agreements by this Government, or will Ministers continue to fail to fulfil commitments to suspend preferential treatment to trading partners who knowingly commit genocide, the most heinous of crimes?

I would also like to mention issues around professional qualifications, which are part of this agreement. We recognise the importance of professional qualifications to allow skilled workers necessary to the UK economy to enter the UK and contribute to the UK’s overall economic benefit, as well as allowing British workers to live and work abroad. Regulators must be allowed and guided to seek mutual recognition agreements, but essentially in a way which does not undermine their regulatory autonomy, and which must ensure that domestic standards are protected.

This is crucial to the Professional Qualifications Bill currently awaiting Report in this House. It was revealed in Committee that the Bill had been drafted without the Government being able to understand which professions and which regulators were to be caught under the legislation. The Professional Qualifications Bill contains a power to implement the recognition of professional qualification elements of international agreements. Can the Minister explain how Clause 3 of the Bill relates to this trade agreement? Can the provisions of this agreement be implemented without Clause 3? How do the provisions in the trade agreement maintain and secure regulatory autonomy?