Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 21 November 2017 to Question 113264, if his Department will undertake an impact assessment of the implications for UK trade in relation to each trade remedy that will potentially be agreed with the WTO after the UK leaves the EU.

Trade remedies allow WTO members to operate a safety net and protect domestic industry from injury caused by unfair trading practices, such as dumped or subsidised imports, or unforeseen surges in imports. The Taxation (Cross-Border Trade) Bill and Trade Bill set out the UK’s proposed trade remedies system: that an independent body, Trade Remedies Authority (TRA), will investigate cases and propose measures to tackle injury to UK industry caused by such trading practices.

We have published an impact assessment on the trade remedies framework set out in the Taxation (Cross-Border Trade) Bill, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/taxation-cross-border-trade-bill

The TRA will not conduct an impact assessment on each measure proposed. However, the system will apply an economic interest test as part of each investigation to take into account wider economic considerations alongside the need to correct injury to UK industry. This will consider whether proposed measures might have a disproportionate impact on other economic actors in the UK, such as downstream users and consumers. This is similar to the European Union Interest Test.