Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jim Cunningham and Liam Fox

Thursday 20th December 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Jim Cunningham (Coventry South) (Lab)]

6. Which countries that the EU has a trade agreement with have notified his Department of restrictions on their ability to offer the same terms in a future trade agreement with the UK.

[The Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade (Dr Liam Fox)]

We will replicate existing EU free trade agreements and their preferential effects with partner countries as far as possible, while making the technical changes needed to ensure that agreements can operate in a bilateral context. We will inform Parliament and the public when agreements have been signed.

[Dr Fox]

I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for his comments. It has been extremely useful to have been able to raise, across the House, the understanding of complex trade issues that have not always been within the UK Government’s remit in recent years.

As the right hon. Gentleman rightly says, there are a number of agreements. My Department is responsible for some of them, some are the responsibility of the Department for International Development, and some are the responsibility of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office—they cut right across the whole Government. We are making very good progress across a whole range of them. Of course, we have now initialled the first of those major trade agreements, with Switzerland, which is responsible for almost a fifth of the total trade within those agreements. Others will follow. The discussions are very often commercially quite sensitive, so we will inform the House when we have signed agreements, and not before.

[Mr Jim Cunningham]

Mr Speaker, like the right hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington (Tom Brake), I wish you, the staff, Ministers and everybody else a merry Christmas and a happy new year. Have any countries indicated a preference for the UK delaying Brexit without a deal?

[Dr Fox]

Not directly in the discussions that I have had with other countries, but there is clearly a desire to have an agreement, so that there is time during the transition of these agreements before they become a more bespoke relationship. The two-year implementation period set out in the Government’s proposals would enable that, so that is clearly preferable for both sides.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jim Cunningham and Liam Fox

Thursday 28th June 2018 Commons Chamber

[Dr Fox]

Of course, we will continue to do that; it is a very successful programme. But perhaps more usefully we can help to get small businesses the finance they require to get into the exporting business. Last year, in a change from the previous pattern, 78% of all the UK export finance agreements were done with small and medium-sized enterprises in this country.

[Mr Jim Cunningham (Coventry South) (Lab)]

Has the Secretary of State looked at the impact of tariffs on British investments overseas?

[Dr Fox]

Tariffs in general are one of the areas we want to be able to look at when we leave the European Union. Of course the setting of tariffs is a legal power that we do not yet have. To be able to take full advantage of alternatives—reductions in tariffs, for example—this House will have to pass the customs Bill, which is coming back shortly. I hope that we can count on the hon. Gentleman’s support on that.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jim Cunningham and Liam Fox

Thursday 12th October 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Jim Cunningham (Coventry South) (Lab)]

1. What plans he has to publish a White Paper on trade.

[The Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade (Dr Liam Fox)]

Since he is a conscientious and committed Member of the House of Commons, the hon. Gentleman will know that the Government published a trade White Paper on Monday 9 October 2017. The trade White Paper establishes the principles that will guide future UK trade policy and sets out the preparatory steps that we are taking. The paper can be found in the Libraries of both Houses and on the gov.uk website.

[Mr Cunningham]

What transitional plans does the Secretary of State have for the transitional period if he cannot necessarily do the trade deals that he wants to do?

[Dr Fox]

If the hon. Gentleman is referring to the transitional adoption of existing EU agreements, I can tell him that we have had a very positive response from other Governments, who, like us, want to ensure that there is no disruption of trade at the point of departure from the European Union. We will want to get as many of those in place as we can. That depends partly on the willingness of partners to get that ready on time; there are obviously contingency measures available to us under the World Trade Organisation to ensure continued market access in any case.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jim Cunningham and Liam Fox

Thursday 8th September 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Jim Cunningham (Coventry South) (Lab)]

12. Can manufacturing companies in my constituency, such as Jaguar Land Rover, have some clarity on whether the Secretary of State expects the UK to revert to the World Trade Organisation default tariffs after leaving the European Union? We need some answers.

[Dr Fox]

My team will be placing a great deal of emphasis on looking at our relationship with the WTO and where we exist on the current EU schedules.