Continuity Trade Agreements: Parliamentary Scrutiny

Dave Doogan Excerpts

Tuesday 17th November 2020 Commons Chamber

[Greg Hands]

My hon. Friend is quite right. I think I am actually due to speak with farmers in his constituency in the coming 10 days or so, which I am looking forward to very much. He is quite right that putting the Trade and Agriculture Commission on a statutory footing means that all the National Farmers Unions from across the United Kingdom will play an active role in assessing trade agreements going forward.

[Dave Doogan (Angus) (SNP) [V]]

Even the Scottish Tory leader’s senior adviser, the former Tory MP for Angus, has said that this Government need a “wake-up call” as we see decisions taken by the UK Government without regard to Scotland. A failure to roll over these FTAs would lead to a tariff and quota disaster for Scotland’s £15 billion food and drink sector. Indeed, with food and drink exports four times more important to the Scottish economy than the English economy, we can see why Scottish producers are horrified at this abject ministerial failure. Why will the Minister not acknowledge this £38 billion crisis? What will he do to fix it for food and drink producers in Scotland?

[Greg Hands]

I think the hon. Member’s phrase was “abject ministerial failure”. We are working hard to roll over all these agreements. I just remind him that these are all agreements that were opposed by the SNP in the first place. It abstained on EU-Japan and EU-Singapore, and it was against EU-Canada, against EU-South Africa and against EU-Korea. He ought to be celebrating the fact that these agreements are not being rolled over, to be consistent with his previous position. We are working hard to make sure that they are rolled over.