Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, if he will publish all external guidance and advice his Department has received on the proposals to adopt the lesser duty rule as part of any future trade remedy scheme as set out in the Taxation (Cross Border Trade) Bill.

The UK’s trade remedies regime will provide robust protections for UK industry suffering from injury, caused by dumped or subsidised imports, or unforeseen import surges. To ensure these protections are proportionate, the regime will set measures at the level necessary to address the injury to UK industry (known as the lesser duty rule), and apply an economic interest test as part of the independent investigation process (similar to the existing Union interest test in the EU).

We have been engaging with stakeholders on how these elements of the regime will work in practice, and are committed to continuing that engagement. This process will also be informed by economic research commissioned by this Department through public tender to provide evidence on the design and implementation of a future trade remedies framework.