UK Internal Market: White Paper

Sarah Owen Excerpts
Thursday 16th July 2020

(4 years, 5 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Sarah Owen Portrait Sarah Owen (Luton North) (Lab) [V]
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Vauxhall in Luton proudly produces one of the best-selling vans in all regions and nations in the UK. This is part of the £10.5 billion-worth of goods that are imported into Northern Ireland from Great Britain each year. All this is reliant on frictionless trade. Does the Secretary of State agree that the commitment to frictionless trade across the UK, as set out in the White Paper, is essentially meaningless given that the Government have admitted that the protocol will introduce new requirements on trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland?

Lord Sharma Portrait Alok Sharma
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We published our Command Paper in May, as the hon. Lady knows, and we said in that that there will be unfettered access for goods from Northern Ireland to GB. Certainly, the discussions that I have had suggest that businesses understand that the proposals in the White Paper give them further certainty.