Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, pursuant to proceedings in Committee on the Trade Bill of 23 January 2018, what assessment he has made of evidential basis for the statement by James Ashton Bell on the consultation on the creation of a Trade Remedies Authority that the optics were all wrong.

The Department has undertaken a comprehensive series of engagement activities as we develop our future trade policy. The White Paper published in October is just one part of an ongoing programme of engagement. Our wider engagement work – including roundtables, bi-laterals and technical meetings – began in July 2016.