Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what recent steps he has taken to increase the UK's proportion of trade with Tunisia.

The Department for International Trade (DIT) works closely with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Department for International Development to advance our trade relationship with Tunisia; Ministers and senior officials incorporate discussions on trade issues in their engagements with counterparts in Tunisia. My Hon. Friend for South West Wiltshire (Dr Andrew Murrison), appointed as the Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Tunisia in 2016, has helped develop a strong bilateral trading relationship.

As we prepare to leave the EU, to provide stability for businesses, consumers and investors, DIT has been working closely with the FCO and its Tunisian counterparts to achieve continuity of trading arrangements by replicating the effects of the existing EU-Tunisia Association Agreement in a bilateral agreement.