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 potential challenges for producers exporting goods to the EU after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Graham Stuart
In 2016 there were 210,000 UK VAT registered importers and exporters for trade in goods with the EU, of which 138,000 traded solely with EU Member States.
In July, my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for International Trade, appointed Andrew Mitchell as Her Majesty’s Trade Commissioner for Europe to lead the Department’s efforts to grow the UK’s trading relationship with the EU.
The recently announced £5 million uplift for our overseas network in Europe will build upon and strengthen our trade and investment links with European partners as we leave the EU, and support UK businesses to be able to sustain and grow exports and investment as we move into a new trading environment in Europe.
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, if he will make an assessment of the effect of the UK leaving the EU on the UK’s trading arrangements with developing countries.
Answered by George Hollingbery
The Department for International Trade and the Department for International Development are working closely together to put global prosperity at the heart of the UKs future trade and development policy and to shape our future trading arrangements with these countries. Our first priority is to deliver continuity in these trading arrangements as we leave the EU, which is why the UK is seeking to replicate the effects of the EU’s Economic Partnership Agreements with African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.
The Taxation (Cross-Border Trade) Act enables the UK to put in place a UK trade preferences scheme for developing countries. The Act also enshrines into UK law the commitment contained in the UN Sustainable Development Goals to provide duty free quota free trade access for Least Developed Countries. The UK trade preference scheme will, as a minimum, provide the same level of access as the current EU trade preference scheme by granting duty-free, quota-free access to 48 Least Developed Countries and by granting generous tariff reductions to around 25 other developing countries.
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 his Department plans to undertake (a) gender, (b) human rights and (c) sustainability impact assessments for future trade agreements.
Answered by George Hollingbery
The UK takes very seriously its obligations and priorities on gender equality, human rights and sustainability via, amongst other mechanisms, the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the Paris Agreement, the agreement of the UK’s Fifth Carbon Budget in July 2016 and actively supporting the Joint Declaration on Trade and Women’s Economic Empowerment at the World Trade Organization in 2017.
My Rt Hon. friend, the Secretary of State for International Trade, made a Statement to the House of Commons in July in which he committed the Government to publishing scoping assessments for any proposed new free trade agreement prior to the beginning of negotiations and publishing impact assessments of any concluded agreement prior to ratification.
The impact assessments will be consistent with the Government’s impact assessment process for new legislation, which considers environmental and social impacts where appropriate. These impact assessments will give due consideration to the effects of the concluded trade deals on different groups, including gender groups, in line with our requirements under the Equalities Act.
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 his Department has made of the economic importance of the UK’s trade with the EU.
Answered by George Hollingbery
In 2017 the UK’s total trade, in goods and services, with the EU totalled £617.4 billion or 49.1% of total UK trade.
The US was the UK’s largest single country trading partner accounting for £176.9 billion or 14.1% of total trade.
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 types of munitions and arms have been traded to Saudi Arabia in each year since 2016.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government publishes Official Statistics (on a quarterly and annual basis) of licences granted and refused for military exports on GOV.UK, which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/strategic-export-controls-licensing-data
Export licence applications are carefully assessed against the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria. A licence would not be granted if to do so was inconsistent with the Criteria. The policy remains as announced to parliament in a Written Ministerial Statement on 25 March 2014 (https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmhansrd/cm140325/wmstext/140325m0001.htm#14032566000018) and updated with an additional policy, as announced in a Written Ministerial Statement on 13 September 2018 (https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2018-09-13/HCWS957/).
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 ethical considerations are undertaken by his Department in relation to the sale of arms and munitions to other countries; and what steps his Department takes to vet the award of arms export licences.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government publishes Official Statistics (on a quarterly and annual basis) of licences granted and refused for military exports on GOV.UK, which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/strategic-export-controls-licensing-data
Export licence applications are carefully assessed against the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria. A licence would not be granted if to do so was inconsistent with the Criteria. The policy remains as announced to parliament in a Written Ministerial Statement on 25 March 2014 (https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmhansrd/cm140325/wmstext/140325m0001.htm#14032566000018) and updated with an additional policy, as announced in a Written Ministerial Statement on 13 September 2018 (https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2018-09-13/HCWS957/).
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 the status of women and the promotion of women’s rights are planned to be factored into the UK's Economic Partnership Agreements.
Answered by George Hollingbery
Our first priority is replicating the effects of the EU’s Economic Partnership Agreements with African, Caribbean and Pacific countries to avoid trade disruption for developing countries. We will also look to see how we could improve upon these trade arrangements in the future.
The UK is committed to increasing women’s role in trade, recognising the importance of trade as a lever for equality. Expanding women’s access to trade is not only the right thing to do and vital to women’s economic empowerment, but it also brings significant long-term economic and developmental gains.
The Government has committed to a number of gender equality and human rights initiatives as part of our trade policy. For example, in response to the Buenos Aires Declaration on women’s economic empowerment, the UK committed to a gender-responsive approach to trade, recognising the importance of women and girls to achieve inclusive and sustainable growth.
The Prime Minister has also launched the new ‘SheTrades Commonwealth’ programme, providing £7m new funding to enhance the competitiveness of women entrepreneurs in a number of Commonwealth countries.
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, pursuant to his oral contribution of 16 July 2018, Official Report column 41, what the criteria are for the best process of engaging Parliament in the negotiation of future trade agreements; and whether he plans to include in that process a parliamentary vote on final such agreements.
Answered by George Hollingbery
The Government has made a strong commitment to transparency and inclusiveness for Parliament, the Devolved Administrations, businesses, civil society groups, trade unions and the public. Building on what we have already set out to Parliament, we are exploring the best process for engaging Parliament at every stage of future trade agreement negotiations.
The Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 will continue to apply as it does to all treaties subject to ratification. For each new future trade agreement requiring changes to legislation and where no powers exist, the Government will bring forward a bespoke piece of primary legislation when required.
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, pursuant to his oral contribution of 16 July 2018, Official Report column 42, on bringing forward bespoke pieces of primary legislation to implement new trade agreements, if he will ensure that existing (a) women’s and (b) workers’ rights will be protected in all changes to legislation.
Answered by George Hollingbery
I refer the hon. Member for Dundee East to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Canterbury today, UIN: 169731.
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, pursuant to his oral contribution of 16 July 2018, Official Report column 42, if he will provide an example of the provisions in a future trade agreement for which (a) changes to legislation are required and (b) there are no existing powers.
Answered by George Hollingbery
We are currently consulting on four future trade agreements and it would not be appropriate at this stage to comment on what provisions might be included in future agreements.
As we leave the EU, the Government is committed to ensuring that Parliament receives the right level of scrutiny of our future trade arrangements.