Oral Answers to Questions

Rehman Chishti Excerpts

Thursday 12th October 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Marcus Fysh (Yeovil) (Con)]

5. What steps his Department is taking to ensure that the Government will have an effective trade policy after the UK leaves the EU.

[Rehman Chishti (Gillingham and Rainham) (Con)]

10. What steps his Department is taking to ensure that the UK will have an effective trade policy after the UK leaves the EU.

[The Minister for Trade Policy (Greg Hands)]

As the Prime Minister set out on Monday, the Government are preparing for the UK’s future as an independent trading nation. We will maximise our opportunities globally by seeking a deep and special partnership with the EU and boosting our trade relationships around the world.

The trade White Paper establishes the principles that will guide future UK trade policy and sets out the preparatory steps we are taking, as my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State laid out earlier in response to Question 1.

[Greg Hands]

The Prime Minister has made it very clear that we want a deep and comprehensive trade agreement with the EU. We in the Department for International Trade are losing no time in preparing ourselves for our own independent trade policy in terms of transitioning existing EU FTAs, in terms of the 14 trade working groups that we have set up and in terms of transitioning trade preferences for the developing world, and that includes the ability to scope out and negotiate new trade agreements once we leave.

[Rehman Chishti]

Will the Minister update the House on the work that the Government are doing to engage with frontier markets, and how these are being prioritised with existing established markets?

[Greg Hands]

May I first congratulate my hon. Friend on becoming the Prime Minister’s trade envoy to Pakistan —[Hon. Members: “Hear, hear.”]—which, I can tell him, went down extremely well on my visit to Islamabad last month. We are devoting resources to frontier and emerging markets through our economic horizons group. We are committed to transitioning the EU’s scheme of trade preferences with those markets into a UK scheme, which will bring real economic assistance to developing countries, including Pakistan.