EU Trade Agreements: Replication

Kirsty Blackman Excerpts
Wednesday 13th February 2019

(5 years, 9 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Liam Fox Portrait Dr Fox
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The process continues, but it is worth pointing out that we have reached agreement with Switzerland, which is by far the biggest of all the agreements under this section of our trade. The trade agreement that we have signed with Switzerland this week is, by value, more than 20% of all 40 of the EU agreements. If it is possible to do it with the biggest one, it should be possible to do it with others.

Kirsty Blackman Portrait Kirsty Blackman (Aberdeen North) (SNP)
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In the unlikely event that the Prime Minister’s deal is agreed, the EU is going to write to the countries that it has agreements with and say, “Please could you agree to treat the United Kingdom as a member of the EU for the transition period?” Will the Secretary of State now admit to the House that there is no guarantee that all those third countries will agree to that request?

Liam Fox Portrait Dr Fox
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All I can say is that I am not aware—nor, as far as I know, is the European Union—of a single country that has said it does not want to continue with the trading arrangements that it currently has with the United Kingdom and the European Union. Why would they?