Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress they have made towards negotiating trade agreements with the governments of (1) Canada, (2) Australia, and (3) New Zealand.

Strengthening and enhancing our bilateral trading relationships with Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are key priorities for the Government’s trade negotiations programme.

(1) The UK-Canada Trade Continuity Agreement (TCA) was signed on 9th December and it will come fully into force once it has completed ratification in Canada. The TCA locked in our existing trading relationship with Canada as we left the transition period and sets out a clear path to begin negotiating a new trade deal during 2021.

(2) Good progress has been made in the UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement (FTA). The third round of negotiations was held between 23rd November and 4th December, completing around 50 discussions. Discussions reached an early milestone of exchanging initial tariffs offers. The fourth round of negotiations will begin on 22nd February.

(3) We are also making good progress on a UK-New Zealand FTA; the third round of negotiations with New Zealand took place between 25th January and 9th February, making progress in many chapters, and we will be publishing an Outcome Statement shortly.