Brexit: EU Free Trade Agreements

Lord Purvis of Tweed Excerpts

Thursday 24th January 2019 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Fairhead]

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord for the question. The Government have been clear. We are aiming to have a deal and an implementation period. On that basis we are confident of the continuity. My honourable friend Minister Hollingbery said in another place that he was confident that most of those 40 agreements would be continued.

[Lord Purvis of Tweed (LD)]

My Lords, they can be continued only if they are ratified both by this Parliament and the third-country parliament. Revelations from the Government yesterday in Committee on the Trade Bill highlight the fact that, even if we have an agreement and even if the EU asks those countries to treat the UK as a continuing member of the EU for the purposes of trade treaties, the Government do not currently know whether or not they will. That leaves a very large question mark—even if we leave with an agreement. If we leave without an agreement on WTO terms, we know through the objections already lodged in Geneva to our goods and now our services schedules that we are likely to leave without any certified schedules under WTO rules, adding even more instability and uncertainty. We know already the consequence of leaving on WTO rules. From day one it would be a tripling of the tariff rates to our trading partners. But we now know that leaving with an agreement also has major uncertainty. Will the Government now, as a matter of urgency, update their impact assessment, already published, to take into consideration these new facts? Will they honour the clear vote of this House to have an urgent update and a policy statement on how the Government intend to take forward their future trading relationships? This House voted for it: when will the Government honour that commitment?

[Baroness Fairhead]

To clarify, I said in the debate that it was for those third countries to determine what their processes are. Some are not public knowledge. I did not say that we did not know. With regard to the WTO rules, it is true that we have submitted our schedules and they have not been certified. However, countries can operate on an uncertified schedule. The EU currently operates on an uncertified schedule. In terms of more information about the process, I said in the debate that I would reflect on the clear desire from this House for more information. I have taken that back to my department.