Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to secure preferential trading access to the UK for least developed countries after the UK leaves the EU.

As we set out in the trade White Paper, ‘Preparing for our future trade policy’, published on 9 October, we will introduce legislation so the UK is ready to put in place a trade preferences scheme as we leave the EU. This will, as a minimum, provide the same level of access as the current EU trade preference scheme. It means that around 48 least developed countries across the globe will continue to benefit from duty-free exports into the UK on all goods, other than arms and ammunition.