Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether she has made an assessment of the extent to which tariff lines under the UK Global Tariff present barriers to the liberalisation of environmental goods.

The UK Global Tariff (UKGT) liberalised 104 environmental products as part of the ‘Green 100’ initiative, thereby making the UKGT greener than the EU Common External Tariff. Tariffs can also play an important role in protecting sensitive domestic industries and supporting trade negotiations. Any decisions made on altering tariff lines must be balanced across a variety of considerations, as laid out in the five principles established in section 8(5) of the Taxation (Cross-Border Trade) Act 2018.