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Written Question
Trade Agreements: Maldives
Wednesday 10th February 2021

Asked by: David Amess (Conservative - Southend West)

Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what steps her Department is taking to establish equivalent trading agreements between Maldives and the UK as exist with similar Commonwealth countries.

Answered by Ranil Jayawardena

British agreements with similar Commonwealth countries were ‘rolled over’ from previous European Union (EU) agreements. My Hon. Friend will know that the Maldives did not have a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the EU.

HM Government has not been able to negotiate trade deals with our friends around the world for almost fifty years. Now that we have control of our independent trade policy, the Department for International Trade is actively pursuing agreements with our trading partners, under an ambitious programme of work – including with the United States, Australia and New Zealand – as well as seeking accession to the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

The United Kingdom and the Maldives already have a strong bilateral relationship. Trade in goods and services was worth £201m in 2019. In that context, we are working with the Maldivian Government to explore ways to increase trade and investment across a range of sectors of mutual interest, including food and drink, defence, education, fitness and health, and in environmental science and sustainable development.


Written Question
Foreign Investment in UK
Thursday 14th March 2019

Asked by: David Amess (Conservative - Southend West)

Question to the Department for International Trade:

What recent assessment he has made of trends in the level of inward foreign direct investment.

Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

With your permission Mr Speaker I will answer question 10 together with questions 13. The UK remains the top destination in Europe, and third in the world for foreign direct investment.  By the end of 2017, UK inward FDI stock levels reached £1,337bn, a record for the UK.

In addition to publishing annual analysis of DIT’s FDI performance as Official Statistics, we recently published one of the most comprehensive analyses of the economic impact of FDI in the world, highlighting the benefits of FDI to the UK.