Asked by: Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party - Central Ayrshire)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policy on arms exports to Israel of the International Court of Justice's order relating to the case of the Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v Israel), published on 26 January 2024.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Decisions on export licensing are based on the UK's Strategic Export Licensing Criteria.
The Governments export licences are kept under careful and continual review, and can amend, suspend or revoke extant licences, or refuse new licence applications, where they are inconsistent with these criteria.
The Government respects the role and independence of the International Court of Justice. However, the Government have stated that we have considerable concerns about this case.
Israel has the right to defend itself against Hamas, provided this is proportionate and within the bounds of International Humanitarian Law, as we’ve said from the outset. The Government view is that Israel’s actions in Gaza cannot be described as a genocide, which is why South Africa’s decision to bring the case was wrong and provocative.
Asked by: Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party - Central Ayrshire)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will make it her policy to remove the six per cent import duty on urine drainage bags on a permanent basis by re-classifying them as medical devices under the UK Global Tariff regime.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
In 2021 the Government implemented temporary tariff suspensions on a set of goods, including urine drainage bags, to support the healthcare response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Government has extended the majority of these suspensions until 31 December 2023.
HMRC has reviewed the classification of urine drainage bags and although these are used in conjunction with medical products (e.g. catheters), they are not considered to be medical devices. As such they are classified as articles of plastic (tariff heading 3926). This is in line with classification decisions previously issued by the World Custom Organization which member countries are expected to follow. Businesses can direct queries on classification to classification.enquiries@hmrc.gov.uk or through this link https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-revenue-customs/contact/customs-international-trade-and-excise-enquiries.
The Government has recently received stakeholder feedback on tariffs on urine drainage bags. We are considering the evidence provided alongside wider UK Government analysis.