Trade Agreements
(asked on 20th May 2025) - View Source
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the agreement with the European Union to dynamically align on sanitary and phytosanitary matters, what assessment they have made of the implications on trade deals with countries other than those in the EU.
Answered by
Baroness Hayman of Ullock
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is committed to tackling trade barriers wherever they emerge as we have shown by securing a new free trade agreement with India and a new deal with the US.
The SPS agreement will reduce delays and paperwork at the border with the EU, make it easier and cheaper to take pets on holiday into the EU, and trade in products such as fresh sausages and seed potatoes will be able to resume.
We will always consider our economic interests in the round. The EU is our largest trading partner and there are significant opportunities from an SPS agreement. We will continue to work with trading partners throughout this process, both bilaterally and at the WTO.
The agreement with the EU does not impact on our ability to agree Free Trade Agreements with other trading partners. Any practical impacts on imports from the rest of the world will be communicated to traders in due course.