Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their strategy for future trade relations with the African Union.

The UK is a key trading partner for African nations and the Government has made arrangements to provide duty-free quota-free access to our market for 39 Sub-Saharan African countries, and tariff reductions to a further five countries.

The UK is supporting the African Union's ongoing negotiations on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) with targeted technical assistance and training for African trade negotiators. We continue to consider options to increase this support from the next financial year. The Minister for Africa discussed UK support for the AfCFTA with the Secretary General of the AfCFTA in June and with African Union Commissioners in Addis Ababa in July. We are also implementing programmes to help countries in the region break down barriers to trade, including the UK Trade Partnerships Programme and SheTrades Commonwealth.