Oral Answers to Questions

Tonia Antoniazzi Excerpts

Thursday 10th June 2021 Commons Chamber

[Graham Stuart]

I would of course be delighted to meet my hon. Friend, and I congratulate her on her continued leadership in Parliament on behalf of her constituents and the country as a whole.

[Tonia Antoniazzi (Gower) (Lab)]

What recent progress she has made on negotiating new free trade agreements.

[The Secretary of State for International Trade (Elizabeth Truss)]

We have signed trade deals covering 67 countries and the European Union, we are making good progress with like-minded friends and allies such as New Zealand and Australia, and we will shortly launch negotiations to join the trans-Pacific partnership, worth £9 trillion of GDP.

[Tonia Antoniazzi [V]]

Penblwydd hapus, Mr Speaker. On 6 November, the Secretary of State told the National Farmers Union of Wales:

“We have no intention of ever striking a deal that doesn’t benefit farmers, but we have provided checks and balances in the form of the Trade and Agriculture Commission”.

May I ask her if the commission will have the power to tell Parliament whether her Australia deal benefits Welsh farmers, or is she breaking the promise that she made only seven months ago?

[Elizabeth Truss]

I assure the hon. Lady that the Trade and Agriculture Commission will be up and running to fully scrutinise the Australia trade deal. As set out in the Agriculture Act 2020, the TAC will look at whether FTAs

“are consistent with the maintenance of UK levels of statutory protection”

for

“animal or plant life or health…animal welfare, and…the environment.”

That is what Parliament supported in the Agriculture Act and the Trade Act 2021.