Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether his Department plans to undertake (a) gender, (b) human rights and (c) sustainability impact assessments for future trade agreements.

The UK takes very seriously its obligations and priorities on gender equality, human rights and sustainability via, amongst other mechanisms, the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the Paris Agreement, the agreement of the UK’s Fifth Carbon Budget in July 2016 and actively supporting the Joint Declaration on Trade and Women’s Economic Empowerment at the World Trade Organization in 2017.

My Rt Hon. friend, the Secretary of State for International Trade, made a Statement to the House of Commons in July in which he committed the Government to publishing scoping assessments for any proposed new free trade agreement prior to the beginning of negotiations and publishing impact assessments of any concluded agreement prior to ratification.

The impact assessments will be consistent with the Government’s impact assessment process for new legislation, which considers environmental and social impacts where appropriate. These impact assessments will give due consideration to the effects of the concluded trade deals on different groups, including gender groups, in line with our requirements under the Equalities Act.