Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, by what date she expects a free trade agreement with Israel to be concluded.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
We launched negotiations for an upgraded Free Trade Agreement with Israel in July and held the first round of technical discussions in Jerusalem on 12 – 20 September.
The Government is clear that in negotiations we will not sacrifice quality for speed. We already have an existing deal providing tariff-free trade for 99% of the value of current goods trade. This upgraded agreement is fundamentally about adding ambitious coverage of services and procurement for a modern digital economy. We will only sign when we have a deal that is fair, reciprocal, and ultimately in the best interests of the British people and the economy.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what the cost is to her Department of her Department’s negotiations with Israel on a free trade agreement to date.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Department for International Trade (DIT) is currently delivering eight Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations, and as of September 2022, had approximately 460 staff working in the Trade Negotiations Group. It is not possible to comment on specific negotiations as the number of staff working on each FTA changes depending on the stage and scale of the deal, and to maximise efficiency. Staff also work across multiple negotiations.
DIT allocated £46.3m in 2022-23 for the negotiation and implementation of FTAs, however, it is not possible to identify funding for individual FTAs.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many civil servants are currently involved in trade negotiations with Israel.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Department for International Trade (DIT) is currently delivering eight Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations, and as of September 2022, had approximately 460 staff working in the Trade Negotiations Group. It is not possible to comment on specific negotiations as the number of staff working on each FTA changes depending on the stage and scale of the deal, and to maximise efficiency. Staff also work across multiple negotiations.
DIT allocated £46.3m in 2022-23 for the negotiation and implementation of FTAs, however, it is not possible to identify funding for individual FTAs.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of a free trade agreement between the UK and Israel.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
An enhanced agreement would expand a trading relationship already worth £5 billion per year. By reducing trade barriers, it could lead to gains in services trade and could benefit around 6,600 UK businesses that export goods to Israel and employed over 1.7 million people in 2020, including around 5,600 small and medium-sized enterprises. Israel’s service sector has grown by 45% in 10 years and is an innovative and dynamic market for boosting UK service exports.
Our published scoping analysis, which contains potential impacts of a new free trade agreement is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-approach-to-negotiating-a-free-trade-agreement-with-israel.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether the Government plans to continue providing (a) trade and investment services and (b) practical support for UK businesses that seek to trade with Russia; and whether she has made an assessment of the compatibility of such support with UK national interests.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
I refer the Hon. Member for Slough to the answer I gave to the Hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull East on 9 March 2022, UIN: 134355.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what proportion of the total value of UK-Russian trade will be affected by the implementation of sanctions on Russia for the invasion of Ukraine.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The United Kingdom is in the top 20 of Russia’s trading partners and our action is coordinated with international partners, magnifying impact.
Data from the Office for National Statistics show that in the four quarters to the end of Q3 2021, Russia accounted for 1.3% of total United Kingdom trade, and 0.7% of the United Kingdom’s exports. In 2021, the commodity codes covered in Schedule 2A of the new legislation accounted for 11.8% of United Kingdom goods exports to Russia (HMRC). Although the situation is evolving, impact assessments have been published alongside the recent legislation which provide further detail.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, to what extent their Department makes use of artificial intelligence in the implementation of its policies; and how much was spent from their Department’s budget on artificial intelligence in each of the last three years.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Department for International Trade does not make use of artificial intelligence in the implementation of its policies.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what assessment they have made of the potential (a) threats and (b) opportunities of artificial intelligence in respect of their Department’s responsibilities.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The opportunities and considerations associated with the use of Artificial Intelligence continue to be explored, as outlined in the guidance on building and using artificial intelligence in the public sector, published on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/a-guide-to-using-artificial-intelligence-in-the-public-sector
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that (a) trade deals which include trade on food and drink and (b) other trade deals support the UK's domestic and international climate commitments.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Our manifesto is clear that in all our trade negotiations we will maintain our high environmental protection standards, which includes clean growth and climate change objectives, animal welfare and food standards.
To inform trade deals and feed into all our negotiations, the Government has run a series of public consultations with the food and drink industry and has established key fora for industry stakeholders such as the Trade and Agriculture Commission and Trade Advisory Groups. As negotiations progress, we will bring together the best evidence from across Government, insight from external stakeholders and a range of data and analytical tools.
Our outline approaches to free trade agreements (FTAs) with the US, Japan, New Zealand, and Australia, have committed to securing provisions that will help trade in low carbon goods and services, support research and development, innovation in green sectors, and maintain our right to regulate in pursuit of decarbonisation. We will continue to pursue a range of mechanisms in the design of future trade policy, both bilateral and multilateral, working with partner nations to tackle climate change.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether UK steel producers face any tariffs or quotas to export steel into the EU market.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Department for International Trade and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy worked closely with the UK steel sector to ensure the European Commission provides UK steel exports into the EU with tariff-free quota allocations from 1 Jan 2021.
As a result, HM Government has successfully secured from the EU country-specific allocations for some steel products within the Tariff Rate Quotas (by which the EU imposes its steel safeguard measures) to enable UK companies to trade tariff-free into the EU. These tariff-free allocations came into operation on 1 January 2021.