Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, with reference to the UN's global goals to end poverty, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that cocoa farmers earn living incomes by 2030.

The UK is firmly of the belief that trade has a key role to play in delivering the global goals and tackling poverty. That is why the Taxation (Cross-Border Trade) Act enables the UK to put in place a trade preferences scheme for developing countries, granting duty-free, quota-free access to 48 Least Developing Countries and granting tariff reductions to around 25 other developing countries. This is critical to achieving Global Goal 17. It also remains the UK’s priority to replicate the effects of the EU’s Economic Partnership Agreements with African, Caribbean and Pacific countries, which includes 24 Commonwealth countries, some of whom are key cocoa producers.