EU: Future Trade Agreement

Lord Whitty Excerpts

Wednesday 29th July 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Scott of Bybrook]

I thank my noble friend. I have no reason to believe that there are any changes to that declaration and that it will not be honoured.

[Lord Whitty (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, perhaps I may take the Minister back to the more familiar territory of transport policy. Given that it now appears that the two most likely outcomes are either a WTO no deal or a sort of bare-bones deal with no tariffs or quotas or other border controls in place, can the Minister update the House on either outcome? What are the likely bilateral arrangements and estimated additional costs for UK-based road haulage, and, likewise, for air freight and cross-channel shipping? Have the Government abandoned the bizarre position of a previous Secretary of State for Transport—namely, that in the event of no deal we would let in incoming traffic without delays but accept that our exporters might face problems across the channel?

[Baroness Scott of Bybrook]

I thank the noble Lord for that question. We are working with all businesses at the moment through the “Let’s Get Going” campaign, launched earlier this month, so that businesses are ready for any changes. Particularly regarding the borders, because of the impact of coronavirus on transport and haulage businesses, as well as others, the UK has taken a decision to introduce some new border controls in three stages. Those three stages go up to 1 July 2021. We will work very closely with all sectors, particularly the sector that has to deal with the borders, on how that work is going. We will talk to them about how we deal with the issues that they think may arise.