Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether her Department has made a recent assessment of the impact of free trade agreements signed with (a) Australia and (b) New Zealand on businesses in Northern Ireland.

The Department's impact assessments of the UK-Australia and UK-New Zealand Free Trade Agreements were published on 16th December 2021 and 28th February 2022 respectively. These impact assessments set out the potential long-run incremental economic impact of these FTAs, including the impact on Northern Ireland, and are available on gov.uk.

As the agreements only entered into force on 31st May 2023 it would not be credible or proportionate to assess the impact to date, including on businesses in Northern Ireland.