Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the remit of the new expert panel established to support UK trade negotiations includes the assessment of the impact of a policy change by leading emerging markets to reduce their dependence on imports; and if so, when the panel is expected to report the results of this assessment.

The Department for International Trade (DIT) has convened a panel of academic experts in trade to advise on how we develop and use cutting-edge economic models and analytical techniques in our trade modelling. The purpose of the review is to examine DIT’s current approach to trade modelling and to consider how best to incorporate wider global economic developments and the latest academic thinking on measuring trade impacts in its modelling framework. The panel will advise on analytical methods and tools to capture the impact of changes in trade policy in general, it will not assess specific policy questions. Once the panel has made recommendations to improve DIT’s modelling capability, DIT will explore how best to incorporate these in our analysis in support of trade policy questions.