Asked by: Lord Grocott (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what factors determine which of the UK's trading partners are allocated a trade envoy.
Answered by Lord Grimstone of Boscobel
The Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy Programme supports British businesses overseas and attracts investment into the UK. The programme works in collaboration with other trade promotion activities, and it focuses on emerging and high growth markets where additional senior interactions can be valuable, or larger economies where multiple interactions at different levels are effective. Trade Envoys are appointed to markets where there are opportunities to increase bilateral trade.
The Department for International Trade is constantly reviewing suitable countries, regions, and markets to identify where the appointment of a Trade Envoy can be of greatest benefit to the trade and investment aims of the UK, with the Prime Minister ultimately making the decision to appoint.
Asked by: Lord Grocott (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what the current annual cost of the Trade Envoy programme is.
Answered by Lord Grimstone of Boscobel
In 2019-20 the cost of the Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy Programme was £651,387. All costs incurred are subject to departmental restrictions and guidelines which apply to the programme’s use of public funds.
Asked by: Lord Grocott (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask Her Majesty's Government to list the current trade envoys broken down by their membership of the (1) Conservative party, (2) Labour party, (3) Liberal Democrat party, (4) Crossbench group in the House of Lords, and (5) Non-affiliated peers in the House of Lords.
Answered by Lord Grimstone of Boscobel
There are currently 36 Trade Envoys. A full list including their political affiliation is below.
| Trade Envoy | Political party |
1 | Andrew Selous | Conservative (1) |
2 | Baroness Hooper | Conservative (1) |
3 | Baroness Meyer | Conservative (1) |
4 | Baroness Morris of Bolton | Conservative (1) |
5 | Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne | Conservative (1) |
6 | Conor Burns | Conservative (1) |
7 | Damien Moore | Conservative (1) |
8 | Daniel Kawczynski | Conservative (1) |
9 | Darren Henry | Conservative (1) |
10 | David Mundell | Conservative (1) |
11 | Dr. Andrew Murrison | Conservative (1) |
12 | Felicity Buchan | Conservative (1) |
13 | Heather Wheeler | Conservative (1) |
14 | Helen Grant | Conservative (1) |
15 | Katherine Fletcher | Conservative (1) |
16 | Laurence Robertson | Conservative (1) |
17 | Lord Astor of Hever | Conservative (1) |
18 | Lord Lamont | Conservative (1) |
19 | Lord Popat | Conservative (1) |
20 | Lord Risby of Haverhill | Conservative (1) |
21 | Marco Longhi | Conservative (1) |
22 | Mark Eastwood | Conservative (1) |
23 | Mark Garnier | Conservative (1) |
24 | Mark Menzies | Conservative (1) |
25 | Martin Vickers | Conservative (1) |
26 | Richard Graham | Conservative (1) |
27 | Theo Clarke | Conservative (1) |
28 | Lord Faulkner | Labour (2) |
29 | Rushanara Ali | Labour (2) |
30 | Stephen Timms | Labour (2) |
31 | Lord Botham | Crossbench (4) |
32 | Baroness Hoey | Non-affiliated (5) |
33 | Lord Austin | Non-affiliated (5) |
34 | Lord Davies of Abersoch | Non-affiliated (5) |
35 | Lord Walney | Non-affiliated (5) |
36 | Sir Jeffrey Donaldson | Democratic Unionist Party |
Asked by: Lord Grocott (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the change in title from the Prime Minister's Trade Envoys to Trade Envoys indicates a change in accountability.
Answered by Lord Grimstone of Boscobel
There has been no change in title or accountability of the ‘Prime Minister’s Trade Envoys’, however the formal title is occasionally shortened to ‘Trade Envoys’ for brevity.
Asked by: Lord Grocott (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Grimstone of Boscobel on 22 February (HL13173) and 9 March (HL13586), to list in the body of their answer which specific countries they have secured continuity trade agreements with since the UK’s departure from the EU.
Answered by Lord Grimstone of Boscobel
In addition to our deal with the EU, we have secured trade agreements with 66 non-EU countries, covering £890 billion of trade in total (2019 data). These are:
Albania;
Antigua and Barbuda;
Barbados;
The Bahamas;
Belize;
Botswana;
Cameroon;
Canada;
Colombia;
Côte d’Ivoire (The Ivory Coast);
Costa Rica;
Chile;
Dominica;
The Dominican Republic;
Ecuador;
Egypt;
El Salvador;
Eswatini (Swaziland);
The Faroe Islands;
Fiji;
Ghana;
Grenada;
Guyana;
Guatemala;
Georgia;
Honduras;
Iceland;
Israel;
Japan;
Jordan;
Jamaica;
Kenya;
Kosovo;
Lebanon;
Lesotho;
Liechtenstein;
Mexico;
Morocco;
Moldova;
Mozambique;
Mauritius;
Nicaragua;
Norway;
North Macedonia;
Namibia;
Peru;
Panama;
Papua New Guinea;
The Palestinian Authority;
Saint Lucia;
St. Vincent and the Grenadines;
Samoa;
The Solomon Islands;
St. Kitts and Nevis;
The Seychelles;
South Africa;
Switzerland;
Singapore;
South Korea;
Suriname;
Trinidad and Tobago;
Tunisia;
Turkey;
Ukraine;
Vietnam; and
Zimbabwe.
Asked by: Lord Grocott (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Grimstone of Boscobel on 22 February (HL13173), whether they will now answer the question put, namely, further to the UK's departure from the EU, with which countries they have signed continuity trade agreements.
Answered by Lord Grimstone of Boscobel
We have secured trade agreements with 65 countries, plus the EU, covering £890 billion of trade in 2019, equivalent to 63% of the United Kingdom’s total trade.
On 2nd March, HM Government signed a Trade Partnership Agreement with Ghana.
Some countries with which we have signed agreements have not been able to bring the agreement into effect or have not been able to do so fully. They are in the process of completing the final necessary steps to allow the agreements to enter into effect fully. This is the case for Canada, Jordan and Mexico.
We have set out on GOV.UK the signed agreements that entered into effect on 1st January and have published advice for those agreements that are not in place fully. The link can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/uk-trade-agreements-with-non-eu-countries.
Asked by: Lord Grocott (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the UK's departure from the EU, which countries they have signed continuity trade agreements with.
Answered by Lord Grimstone of Boscobel
We have secured trade agreements with 64 non-EU countries. Total trade with these countries was worth £216 billion in 2019. This accounts for 97% of the value of trade with non-EU countries that we set out to secure agreements with at the start of the trade continuity programme.
After the transition period began, we expanded the ambition of our programme above and beyond this original scope, securing agreements with Japan, Turkey, Vietnam and Singapore, which together accounted for £71 billion of trade in 2019.
All countries with which the United Kingdom has a trade deal are set out on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Lord Grocott (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask Her Majesty's Government to list all current appointments to the Trade Envoy Programme, detailing for each individual (1) the date of their appointment, (2) the countries to which they are assigned, and (3) the political party or grouping to which they belong.
Answered by Lord Grimstone of Boscobel
There are currently 30 Trade Envoys. A full list including their date of appointment, assigned markets and political affiliation is attached.
Asked by: Lord Grocott (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to publish the party or group affiliations of UK trade envoys.
Answered by Lord Grimstone of Boscobel
A written ministerial statement was laid in both Houses on Monday, 5th October listing all the Prime Minister’s Trade Envoys. We have no plans to publish further information on party or group as this is already in the public domain.
Asked by: Lord Grocott (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Viscount Younger of Leckie on 17 July (HL16983), whether the Trade Envoys are answerable to Parliament either (1) directly, (2) via a minister, or (3) not at all.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
Trade Envoys comprised of parliamentarians drawn from both Houses are answerable to Parliament via direct line of report to my Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Trade who is accountable for the programme.
Although the Trade Envoy role is not a ministerial appointment and does not carry formal policy responsibility the Trade Envoys are under the same obligation as Ministers to adhere to the relevant departmental restrictions, guidelines and confidentiality clauses.