Asked by: Stewart Hosie (Scottish National Party - Dundee East)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many of his Department's staff have been trained as trade negotiators by the Diplomatic Academy; and what his timescale is for that Academy achieving its goal of training 240 trade negotiators before the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Conor Burns
I refer the Hon Member for Dundee East to the answers I gave today, UIN: 5362 and 5363.
Asked by: Stewart Hosie (Scottish National Party - Dundee East)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many staff in her Department have more than (a) one (b) three and (c) five years experience in negotiating trade deals.
Answered by Conor Burns
Our people are drawn from a wide range of backgrounds and have a corresponding range of experience of international trade negotiations, trade remedies and trade defence working on EU trade negotiations such as Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and multilateral agreements in the WTO.
To build the trade policy and negotiating experience in the Department for International Trade (DIT), over the 24 months to end-March 2020, around 350 places will have been taken by people in DIT on Expert Level training in technical areas of trade policy and around a further 350 places taken on Expert Level Free Trade Agreement negotiations training.
Asked by: Stewart Hosie (Scottish National Party - Dundee East)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many trade experts have been (a) recruited and (b) trained by her Department since its establishment.
Answered by Conor Burns
The Department has a strong core of trade policy officials which has grown significantly since July 2016 (from 45 to approximately 575 currently) and is continuing to grow. Trade Policy Group is also supported by around 70 lawyers and 90 analysts.
The number of negotiators and the training they require is dependent on how many trade agreements are ongoing at any given time, the specific chapters in that negotiation and the complexity of that chapter. Negotiating teams will differ in sizes, with expertise relevant to the specific chapters of sectors.
Asked by: Stewart Hosie (Scottish National Party - Dundee East)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether there are trade working groups or equivalents with all the countries that his Department is or has been negotiating trade continuity agreements; and with which other countries there are trade working groups or equivalents.
Answered by Conor Burns
We are working with countries across the world to develop our current trade relationships and ensure that Britain becomes a global free trade leader once we leave the EU.
Working groups are one means of engagement with our trading partners. Others include informal contact through our network of Posts, discussions with embassies in London, ministerial discussions and visits, the Prime Minister’s Trade Envoys, and HM Trade Commissioners.
In addition to the ongoing engagement in the Trade Agreement Continuity Programme, we have established Working Groups with the USA, Australia, New Zealand, China, India, Japan and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), comprising Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE.
Asked by: Stewart Hosie (Scottish National Party - Dundee East)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, when he plans to publish a response to his Department's public consultations on (a) Trade with the US, (b) Trade with Australia, (c) Trade with New Zealand and (d) Trade with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership which concluded on 26 October 2018.
Answered by George Hollingbery
We intend to publish a Government Response, to the four public consultations on potential future free trade agreement negotiations with the US, Australia, New Zealand and on the UK potentially seeking accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), before entering into any future trade agreement negotiations.
Asked by: Stewart Hosie (Scottish National Party - Dundee East)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what trade agreements he expects the UK to have agreed and will be in force on 29 March 2019.
Answered by George Hollingbery
As a matter of priority, the Government is working to ensure there is no disruption to the UK’s global trading relationships. Discussions with partner countries have demonstrated a commitment to finding a pragmatic way to ensure continuity of our existing international agreements.
Alongside the Withdrawal Agreement, the EU agreed to notify its treaty partners that the UK be treated as a Member State for the purposes of EU international agreements during the Implementation Period (IP). This includes trade agreements.
The Government continues to prepare for all eventualities, including a ‘no deal’ Brexit scenario, in the event of which we will seek to bring into force bilateral agreements from exit day (29 March 2019) or as soon as possible thereafter. We are making good progress and have signed continuity agreements with Chile, the Faroe Islands and Eastern and Southern African Economic Partnership Agreement states, as well as Mutual Recognition Agreements with Australia and New Zealand. Other agreements are soon to follow. When we reach agreement with other countries will depend on the progress of ongoing discussions, taking into account a range of factors. The Government will continue to inform Parliament and the public when agreements are signed and will be making an announcement soon.
Asked by: Stewart Hosie (Scottish National Party - Dundee East)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what role the devolved Administrations will have in developing the UK’s trade policy after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by George Hollingbery
The UK Government is committed to working closely with the Devolved Administrations to deliver a future trade policy that works for the whole of the UK. The Government recently committed to a new Ministerial Forum on International Trade with the Devolved Administrations which will provide a formal mechanism for Devolved Government Ministers to discuss and provide input to future trade negotiations.
My Department continues to work with the Devolved Administrations on their role in future trade arrangements and is supporting this work with a programme of ongoing engagement at both Ministerial and official level.
Asked by: Stewart Hosie (Scottish National Party - Dundee East)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what plans he has to promote high environmental standards with the UK's trading partners in (a) current and (b) future trade negotiations.
Answered by George Hollingbery
The UK has long supported the promotion of our values globally and this will continue as we leave the EU.
When we leave the European Union, we will maintain our current standards. We will keep our existing UK legislation, and the EU Withdrawal Act will convert EU law into UK law as it applies at the moment of exit. This includes the regulatory regime for food safety, animal welfare, and regulatory product requirements for industrial goods.
We’re clear that more trade doesn’t have to come at the expense of the environment. We are exploring all options in the design of future bilateral trade and investment agreements, including possible environmental provisions within these taking into account results of the DIT consultation exercise.
Asked by: Stewart Hosie (Scottish National Party - Dundee East)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, (a) how many staff have been appointed to prepare and (b) what the cost to the public purse has been of preparing his Department for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.
Answered by George Hollingbery
The Department of International Trade was created as a result of the UK’s decision to leave the European Union. Individual roles are not classified according to particular EU Exit scenarios, including leaving without a deal.
The Department for International Trade integrates scenario planning for EU exit into its overall programmes of work. ‘No deal’ planning is not undertaken by a distinct team and it is therefore not possible to separately identify the spend associated with the UK leaving the EU without a deal.
HM Treasury has allocated over £4.2 billion of additional funding to departments and the devolved administrations for EU exit preparations so far. This includes the £1.5 billion of additional funding HM Treasury announced in the Autumn Budget for 2018/19. A full breakdown of how this has been allocated to departments can be found in the Chief Secretary’s Written Ministerial Statement, HCWS540, laid on the 13th March (https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2018-03-13/HCWS540/). This money will be reflected in the January Supplementary Estimates.
Asked by: Stewart Hosie (Scottish National Party - Dundee East)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what assessment he has made of the effect of leaving the EU on the export of Scottish goods and services.
Answered by Graham Stuart
Since the vote to leave the EU, and the formation of DIT, Scottish exports of goods and services have risen substantially. In the year to 2018Q2, Scottish exports of goods and services (excluding exports to the rest of the UK) totalled £32.4bn, an increase of 14.2% from the year to 2016Q2, but Scottish exports as % of Scottish GDP was 20.6% compared to 30.4% for UK exports as % of UK GDP (Sources: Scottish Government, GDP Quarterly National Accounts 2018Q2, ONS GDP First Quarterly Estimate 2018Q3).
Reaching our UK aim of 35% and exploiting the benefits of post-EU trade deals will be helped by significant improvement in Scottish exporting performance, greater awareness of DIT services in Scotland and the constructive support of the Scottish Government.