Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate he has made of the benefits to UK businesses in the (a) retail, (b) automobile, (c) construction, (d) ICT, (e) financial services and (f) defence sectors of reduced tariff barriers arising from UK membership of the World Trade Organisation.

The Government has not made a specific assessment of the benefits to UK businesses in these sectors as a result of the UK’s membership of the WTO. But the benefits will be substantial as over the 20 years of the WTO average applied tariffs have been cut in half from 15 per cent in 1995 to less than 8 per cent today. And there are now 161 WTO Members comprising 98% of world trade, with the new (post-1995) members contributing 21% of this total. Further benefits are likely from negotiations currently underway: for example the Information Technology Agreement 2 (ITA2) should liberalise tariffs that affect around £12 billion of UK exports and imports.