Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether she has plans to replace the Tradeshow Access Programme (TAP).
Answered by Graham Stuart
I refer the hon. Member for Leeds Central to the answer I gave to my hon. Friend for East Devon on 26 July 2021, UIN: 36810.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many businesses have received support from his Department's network of international trade advisors since its launch in 2020, broken down by region of the UK.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Department is not able to provide, reliably, the management information data requested. Published research from the Export Client Quality Survey reported 7,896 unique businesses supported by International Trade Advisors between April 2018 and March 2019.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many meetings (a) he has and (b) other Ministers of his Department have attended with international trade advisers in the (i) Northern Powerhouse, (ii) Midlands Engine, (iii) South and (iv) London regions; and which Ministers were in attendance at each of those meetings.
Answered by Graham Stuart
According to Department for International Trade records, the Secretary of State did not attend any meetings with international trade advisers since February 2020.
Other ministers have attended twenty-seven meetings with international trade advisers since February 2020. Ten meetings took place in the Northern Powerhouse region, one in the Midlands Engine, fifteen in the South, and one in London.
Minister Stuart attended six meetings in the Northern Powerhouse, eleven in the South, one in the Midlands Engine, and one in London.
Minister Jayawardena attended four meetings in the Northern Powerhouse, and four meetings in the South.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many businesses by region have been supported through the Export Academy; and what the cost to the public purse has been of the Export Academy since it was launched in 2020.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Department is not able to provide, reliably, the management information data requested. 2018/19 is the last published data from the Export Client Quality Survey which reported that over 19,000 unique businesses were supported by the Department for International Trade.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what recent assessment she has made of the use of UK arms exported to Israel; and whether she plans to review the licensing of such exports.
Answered by Ranil Jayawardena
HM Government continues to monitor closely the situation in Israel. We have procedures in place to review licences – and suspend or revoke as necessary – when circumstances require. We consider all our export applications thoroughly against a strict risk assessment framework and keep all licences under careful and continual review as standard procedure.
HM Government takes its export responsibilities seriously and will continue to assess all export licences in accordance with the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria (the ‘Consolidated Criteria’). HM Government will not grant an export licence if to do so would be inconsistent with the Consolidated Criteria.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether it is her policy to include Gibraltar within the scope of the proposed rollover of the EU's economic partnership agreement with Japan; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Ranil Jayawardena
The aim of HM Government is to agree an ambitious and comprehensive free trade agreement (FTA) with Japan that builds on the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), and secures additional benefits for British businesses.
HM Government will make sure that our new agreements and our future trade policy promote the interests of the whole of the United Kingdom, our Crown Dependencies, and our Overseas Territories – including Gibraltar.
My Department is are committed to representing the interests of our Overseas Territories in our international trade agreements and we are working closely with Gibraltar as we progress negotiations.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what estimate he has made of the number of dishwashers that were imported into the UK from outside the EU in each of the last five years.
Answered by Graham Stuart
Details of UK imports of dishwashers from outside the EU is attached.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether she plans to review UK exports of (a) tear gas and (b) rubber bullets to the US.
Answered by Ranil Jayawardena
My Rt Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Trade and I have been sorry to see the violence that has taken place in the United States of America.
All export licence applications are assessed on a case-by-case basis against the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria (‘Consolidated Criteria’). In reaching a decision, the Department for International Trade receives advice from a number of Departments including the Ministry of Defence and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Together, we draw on all available information, including reports from NGOs and our diplomatic missions. The Consolidated Criteria provides a thorough risk assessment framework and requires us to think hard about the impact of exporting any equipment. These are not decisions my Department takes lightly, and we will not license the export of items where to do so would be inconsistent with the Consolidated Criteria.
Any licence granted by my Rt Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Trade may be subject to conditions. In addition, in line with the Consolidated Criteria, my Department is able to review licences – and suspend or revoke as necessary – when circumstances require. There are currently eight extant licences that may be linked to law enforcement agencies. Six are Open Individual Export Licences (‘OIELs’), which have potential end users that include law enforcement agencies. Two are Standard Individual Export Licences (‘SIELs’), which have numerous potential end users that include law enforcement agencies. There are also 15 Open General Licences (‘OGLs’) for which businesses can register that cover the export of anti-riot gear.
Much information is in the public domain already. We publish information on all export licences issued, refused and revoked on a quarterly and annual basis as official statistics on GOV.UK – at: gov.uk/government/collections/strategic-export-controls-licensing-data – and whilst data on actual exports is not required to be centrally held, the licences issued until the end of December 2019 are available.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what assessment he has made of the UK's potential future trading relationship with EFTA countries; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
As we leave the EU, the UK remains committed to our deep relationships with our partners in EFTA. The draft agreement published by the EU and UK on the terms of the implementation period, will mean that the existing international agreements to which we are a party, will continue to apply to the UK. These include trade arrangements with Switzerland, and the EEA Agreement, which governs crucial elements of our trading and non-trading relationship with the EEA EFTA states. Once the implementation period ends, we will no longer be participants in the EU's international agreements, including the EEA Agreement. We will instead seek to put in place new arrangements to maintain excellent trade relations with these states and continue to have an open dialogue with them about how this can best be achieved.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 22 December 2017 to Question 119231, if he will place in the Library a copy of the analytical work his Department has undertaken examining the implications of the UK leaving the EU on all sectors of the UK economy.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
In November 2017, the Secretary of State for Exiting the EU provided the House of Commons Committee on Exiting the EU and the Lords EU Committee with information covering 58 sectors of the economy, which was published by the committee in December 2017. This analysis was produced by DExEU working with officials across Government, including the Department for International Trade (DIT).
To clarify the answer to 119231, DIT is undertaking a programme of analytical work, looking at the implications of UK withdrawal from the EU, as they relate to the work of the department and the UK’s future trade policy, including the development of a new trade remedies regime, the continuity of existing EU FTA agreements with third countries and the choices for future FTAs the UK will look to enter into negotiations with. The government’s commitment to transparency and inclusivity with regards to the development of trade policy was set out in the Trade White Paper.