Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 7 September 2017 to Question 8329, on the UK Trade and Investment Defence and Security Organisation, how decisions are made on which countries should be designated as core or priority markets.

The Department for International Trade (DIT) undertakes an annual exercise to assess where it can best focus its resource to help UK exporters. DIT’s Defence and Security Organisation (DSO) consults with an extensive overseas network, other government departments and industry organisations to understand the international export opportunities available to UK companies, and to judge which markets present the most significant defence and security export opportunities.