New Partnership with the EU

Kate Green Excerpts

Tuesday 17th January 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Davis]

As I said earlier, and as I have said to Mike Russell, I have not commented publicly on the report even though I have read it in detail because I want to have an open discussion about it later. That does not mean that we are going to agree on everything, but we are going to treat it with respect.

[Kate Green (Stretford and Urmston) (Lab)]

The EU is in the process of concluding international trade deals with, for example, Japan and Canada, which the UK Government have warmly supported, believing they will be good for the UK economy; I understand that the UK Government estimate that the Japanese deal could be worth £5 billion annually to the British economy. How quickly can those deals be replaced when we leave the EU, and what modelling have the Government done of the potential cost to our economy if they cannot quickly be replaced with new deals?

[Mr Davis]

There is little point in modelling what is not going to happen. For many of the most important deals for us, the expectation is that we will get, as it were, an immediate transfer, and then we will start talking about improving the deals between us. Not all EU trade deals have been that beneficial for Britain, and we could certainly improve some of them.