Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many of the EU's free trade arrangements include provisions relating to services.

The EU liberalises trade in both goods and services through WTO negotiations and bilateral and regional trade agreements. The EU’s Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) give the UK preferential access to 53 markets outside the EU. 27 of these markets are covered by agreements with provisions on services. These deals are valuable for the UK services sector. For example, UK services exports to South Korea grew by two-thirds (to £1.5bn) between 2011, when the EU FTA was provisionally applied, and 2013. The service sectors covered, and the degree to which they are liberalised, varies between agreements. Agreements which include services provisions are also under negotiation with partners including the United States of America and Japan. However, even the most recent EU FTA to be agreed, with Canada, offers less guaranteed access than the EU Single Market.

Together with 22 other economies, the EU is also party to negotiations for a plurilateral Trade in Services Agreement to liberalise trade in services further. At the WTO, the EU offers preferential access to its services markets for the world’s poorest countries. Further information on EU trade agreements and ongoing negotiations is available on the European Commission’s DG Trade website.