Oral Answers to Questions

Bob Blackman Excerpts

Thursday 7th March 2024 Commons Chamber

[Nicola Richards (West Bromwich East) (Con)]

4. What recent progress her Department has made on negotiating a free trade agreement with Israel.

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

16. What recent progress her Department has made on negotiating a free trade agreement with Israel.

[The Secretary of State for Business and Trade (Kemi Badenoch)]

Israel remains a part of the FTA programme, and negotiations continue. I had a productive meeting with Israel’s Minister of Economy, Nir Barkat, last week in Abu Dhabi, where we discussed our existing trading relationship as well as how Israel is managing the challenges of working on an FTA while fighting a war.

--- Later in debate ---

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

I understand that another round of negotiations is about to start in India on our long-promised trade deal. The original proposal was to complete the trade deal by Diwali. This year, Diwali is on 1 November, so will the Secretary of State give us an update on negotiations and agree that we should conclude the deal by 1 November?

[Greg Hands]

I thank my hon. Friend for that question and for his continual interest in us getting a high-quality trade deal with India, for which he has long been a passionate advocate. Of course, the most important thing is what is in the deal, rather than the date that it is delivered. We remain in round 14 and we recently welcomed Government of India negotiators to London. The prize remains large—with tariffs as high as 150% for whisky and 125% for autos—and we want to ensure that we get our key service sectors able to export into a market of 1.4 billion people.