Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent discussions he has had with his international counterparts on trade deals.

The Secretary of State met his Indian counterpart, Minister Goyal, in Mumbai as part of the recent trade mission led by the Prime Minister, and had productive discussions on our joint ambition to bring the UK-India free trade agreement (FTA) into force as soon as possible.

I held meetings with German, Emerati, Saudi, Greek and Indian counterparts at the Berlin Global Dialogue and attended the GCC Trade Ministers Meeting in Kuwait in October, reaffirming shared, strong political will to conclude a UK-GCC trade deal.

I visited Argentina and Brazil and discussed how best to strengthen our trading relationship with a series of ministerial counterparts, including potentially through an FTA. I have also held meetings with my Uruguayan, Paraguayan, and Ukrainian counterparts online.

There have been further ministerial-level discussions with counterparts in the US, EU, Switzerland, Republic of Korea, and Turkey.