Continuity Trade Agreements: Parliamentary Scrutiny

Lindsay Hoyle Excerpts

Tuesday 17th November 2020 Commons Chamber

[Greg Hands]

It is genuinely a pleasure to answer this question. Let me try to take in turn the different points made by the right hon. Member for Islington South and Finsbury (Emily Thornberry). First, may I say in general that we are working very hard on the remaining agreements? We have around 700 dedicated officials in the trade policy group who are working on the agreements, and the Secretary of State, the Under-Secretary of State for International Trade, my hon. Friend the Member for North East Hampshire (Mr Jayawardena), and I are also working carefully on them.

Are we riding roughshod? No, we are not. CRaG would still be fully operating—[Interruption.] The right hon. Member for Islington South and Finsbury scoffs, Mr Speaker, but she voted the same way that I did for CRaG in 2010. She should have belief in what she voted for under the previous Labour Government.

As for provisional application, it is absolutely an accepted part of international procedure. It is under the—[Interruption.]

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I granted the urgent question in order for the question to be heard, but I cannot hear the Minister’s reply. I do not want a dialogue all the way through, please. I grant them on the basis that there is a need to listen to what is being said.

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[Greg Hands]

I thank my right hon. Friend for his interest in this area. The UK’s new independent trade policy is designed to be very environmentally friendly. That occurred in the Secretary of State’s speech to the World Trade Organisation in the spring. The UK global tariff that we have published reduces import tariffs, or eliminates them entirely, on 104 environmental goods entering the UK, including things such as steam turbines. We have gone significantly further than the common external tariff of the European Union. When it comes to our negotiations with future trade partners, the US, New Zealand and Australia, we have committed to promoting trade in low-carbon goods and services, as well as supporting R&D, innovation and science in sectors such as offshore wind, smart energy, low-carbon advisory services and energy from waste.

[Mr Speaker]

We are heading to Scotland with the Chair of the Select Committee.

[Angus Brendan MacNeil (Na h-Eileanan an Iar) (SNP) [V]]

The International Trade Committee first reported on the roll-over of trade deals in 2018. Hon. Members probably remember that we were told then that all the agreements would be signed about a minute after midnight on 29 March 2019. It is a huge concern that we still have not done 15 of those deals—indeed, with 44 days to go, the biggest trade deal with the EU is still uncertain. Is it not the truth that jobs, businesses and communities need to be better served by the Government in their work associated with Brexit and these incomplete trade deals? It is time for the Government to get their act together, and quick.

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[Greg Hands]

I spent part of my childhood in the south-west, and I remember only too well the quality of its produce in the agrifood sector. We are negotiating better market access in markets such as Taiwan, China and the United States, where we have just had our first shipment of British beef this summer. We are also reducing tariffs in important areas such as the dairy sector, for example, on cheese, in some of these markets. This is part of a continuous engagement for UK agriculture.

[Mr Speaker]

We have a bad connection with Marion Fellows—we have tech problems—so we are going to go to Dr Neil Hudson.

[Dr Neil Hudson (Penrith and The Border) (Con) [V]]

I am pleased that the Government have strengthened the Trade and Agriculture Commission, announced more robust parliamentary scrutiny of trade deals and provided reassurance that products such as hormone-treated beef and chlorine-washed chicken will remain banned in the UK. Does my right hon. Friend agree that writing specific unacceptable products such as those, and others such as ractopamine-fed pork, the excessive use of microbials and the use of growth promoters, into specific chapters in trade deals would be a practical way of ensuring that high standards are encouraged globally? Does he agree that such an approach would make it clear to both parties in trade deals that those products are not going to be traded, allowing other, acceptable products to be encouraged and therefore driving up animal welfare standards globally?