Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of the inclusion of a clause in the proposed free trade agreement between the UK and Israel permitting Israel to unilaterally apply that agreement to the Occupied Palestinian Territories on securing an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement.

The UK’s position on settlements is clear. The UK does not recognise the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) as part of Israel.

This has been long established policy since 1967 and was reconfirmed recently at the UN security council.

Under the existing UK-Israel trade agreement, goods originating from Israeli settlements in the West Bank, are not entitled to tariff and trade preferences under either the agreement between the UK and Israel, or the agreement between the UK and the Palestinian Authority.