Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of potential for trade agreements with African countries, and which sectors they are prioritising for such agreements.

The UK has nine trade agreements with 18 countries across Africa, including three association agreements covering Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia in North Africa and six development-focussed Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) in sub-Saharan Africa. UK-African agreements focus on trade in goods. In addition, the UK has a unilateral trade preference scheme, called the Developing Country Trading Scheme, which offers 37 African countries generous preferential access to the UK market, with most countries eligible for tariff-free and duty-free access on all products, excluding arms and ammunition.