Turkey: Free Trade Agreement

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering Excerpts

Tuesday 27th April 2021 Grand Committee

[Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con)]

I, too, congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Purvis of Tweed, on securing the debate before us today. I echo the concerns expressed by the chair of the International Agreements Committee on Turkey’s human rights record. What was particularly embarrassing was the blatant flouting of women’s rights by the recent treatment of the EU President on her recent visit there, which does not show Turkey in the best light.

I focus my remarks on the asymmetry of the deal that has been reached in this albeit temporary free trade agreement with Turkey. That is against the backdrop of seeing the latest food and drink exports to the EU—our largest exports sector—suffering a fall of 76% in January and down nearly 41% in February. I struggle, against the detail of the agreement before us today, to see the advantages of these rollover and so-called enhanced agreements. Perhaps I am missing something, so I should be very grateful if the Minister could point out the particular advantages of the deal before us. Obviously, it is a matter of regret to me, working so closely with the farming community, that agricultural goods have not been included, and I urge my noble friend to give us a date when they will.

I have a couple of specific questions relating to paragraphs 27 and 28 of the excellent report of the International Agreements Committee, about the fact that the UK-Turkey agreement reverts to World Trade Organization arrangements for addressing technical barriers to trade, which is apparently a

“consequence of Turkey’s alignment with the EU and the lack of mutual recognition of conformity assessments in the UK-EU”

trade agreement. The committee heard that this

“will result in significant costs for some UK businesses trading with Turkey and that it will affect supply chains.”

I ask my noble friend: is that the case and can he put a figure on those costs or any disruption to the supply chain? I imagine that it is not as severe as that with the existing European Union, but it behoves an answer. I also ask: what specific progress has been made given that the committee concluded that

“Continued cooperation between the UK and the EU on technical barriers to trade is … critical for the UK-Turkey trade relationship”?