Asked by: Alec Shelbrooke (Conservative - Elmet and Rothwell)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking with the Secretary of State for Business and Trade to increase levels of meat and poultry exports.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
To support delivery of the Government’s Export Strategy the Prime Minister recently announced a food and drink export package to boost export capability and deliver on growing demand for our high-quality UK produce across the world. This included a further expansion of our global agrifood and drink counsellor network who negotiate removal of trade barriers in growing global markets. Within the last year we have successfully secured access for lamb to the USA and apples to India. The export package also included a £2m boost to promotional activity such as trade shows and missions that help drive demand for UK products alongside the GREAT food and drink campaign.
To further support food producers export, we have held a range of National and Regional food summits with dedicated SME workshops to highlight export opportunities and build capability.
Supporting this increased investment in exports we have an ambitious programme of negotiations for free trade agreements which is delivering results. On 31 May the UK’s first new free trade agreements with Australia and New Zealand came into force, opening markets for UK producers across all products. On 31 March, the Government substantially concluded negotiations on the UK’s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a free trade agreement (FTA) including 11 members: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam. This trade deal will see new export opportunities for food producers including exporters of meat and poultry.
We work closely with a wide range of industry representative partners to identify and prioritise barrier removal, and to seize opportunities to streamline the export process for animals and animal products. Alongside opening new market opportunities, we are also increasing resilience and mitigating risks to existing trade. This is particularly the case with poultry where we are working with trade partners to agree regionalisation agreements to allow trade from unaffected regions to continue in the context of Avian Influenza outbreaks.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to support food producers from (a) Essex and (b) the UK to increase exports of produce.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are delivering our commitment to boost UK exports, as part of the Government’s ‘Made in the UK, Sold to the World’ export strategy, a 12-point plan to help UK businesses hit £1 trillion in exports. We want people at home and abroad to be lining up to buy British.
We have an ambitious programme of negotiations for free trade agreements (FTAs) which is delivering results. On 31 May the UK’s first new FTAs with Australia and New Zealand came into force, opening up markets for UK producers across all products. On 31 March the Government substantially concluded negotiations on the UK’s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, an FTA including 11 members: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. This trade deal will see new export opportunities for food producers including for exporters of dairy products, including cheese and butter, having greater access to lower tariffs in Canada, Japan, and Mexico, and exporters of chocolate will benefit from zero tariffs on exports to Mexico and Malaysia.
The Prime Minister recently announced a food and drink export package to boost export capability and deliver on growing demand for our high-quality UK produce across the world. This includes a further expansion of our global agrifood and drink counsellor network who negotiate removal of trade barriers in growing global markets. The package also includes investments of £2 million in global trade shows and missions, promotion through the £1.6 million GREAT food and drink campaign, and bespoke support for seafood (£1 million) and dairy exports (£1 million).
To further support food producers export, we have held a range of national and regional food summits with dedicated SME workshops to highlight export opportunities and how to access support.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether exemptions from the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism were sought by Government during accession negotiations to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) with all member states.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership’s (CPTPP’s) investment chapter includes investor protections that are backed by a modern and transparent investor state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism. These commitments guarantee the treatment investors will receive when accessing and operating in CPTPP markets and provides an independent form of legal redress should investors not receive such treatment.
The UK already has investment agreements containing ISDS provisions with seven of the eleven CPTPP countries: Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. Having ISDS provisions in a treaty is not new for the UK with the majority of CPTPP countries.
In light of the investment relationship the UK has with Australia and New Zealand, we have agreed to disapply the ISDS provisions in CPTPP between our countries.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment they have made of the impact of the UK's departure from the EU on their ability to deliver successful policy outcomes.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Leaving the EU has provided the UK with the freedom to conceive and implement laws and policies that put the UK first. At the start of this year, the Government set out its plans to maximise the benefits of Brexit across each major sector of the economy and transform the UK into the best regulated country in the world.
Leaving the EU has also meant that the UK is free to pursue its own independent trade policy and trade agreements. The Ministry of Justice represents the UK legal sector’s interests overseas by improving and maintaining market access for UK lawyers practicing internationally by securing legal services provisions in Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). Since leaving the EU we have secured legal services provisions in a number of FTAs including with Australia and New Zealand. We will continue to seek world leading provisions on legal services in ongoing and upcoming FTA negotiations where this will deliver benefit to the UK legal services sector.
I am also actively engaging with key stakeholders in the sector both at home and abroad, including the Law Society of England and Wales, the Law Society of Scotland, the American Bar Association, and law firms across the UK, to understand the sector’s priorities. This is to ensure that we [HMG] are working effectively with the sector to remove barriers to trade in legal services and to increase UK legal services exports globally.
The UK is a global leader in Private International Law (PIL) and outside the EU we have now regained competence in PIL matters. Private International Law arrangements support the confidence of businesses to trade and invest across borders, underpinning economic growth and access to justice.
That is why we are taking advantage of new freedoms to sign agreements and seek opportunities to strengthen arrangements with our international partners. The government has published a consultation on whether the UK should be party to the Hague 2019 convention on Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgements and in due course we will be publishing the government response to the consultation on whether the UK should sign and ratify the 2018 Singapore Convention on Mediation to support our world-leading mediation sector.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to further increase defence, security, and trade partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Both the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary have recently reaffirmed our long-term commitment to the Indo-Pacific region and ambition to strengthen defence, security and trade. The UK continues to deepen our strong bilateral partnerships across the region such as through the UK-India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, the UK-Indonesia Partnership Roadmap to 2024 and a Bilateral Framework with Republic of Korea.
As an ASEAN Dialogue Partner, we will deepen our cooperation with ASEAN and have negotiated a joint Plan of Action with ASEAN for the next 5 years.
The UK has secured free trade agreements with Australia and New Zealand, and has signed free trade deals with Singapore, Vietnam, the Republic of Korea and Japan, which sets the standards in removing friction and increasing confidence in digital trade. We also intend to be the first European country to accede to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. The UK continues to build long-term defence, industrial and technological partnerships through agreements including AUKUS, with Australia and the USA, and we continue to work on closer collaboration on combat air programmes with Japan.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what recent steps she has taken to increase the proportion of UK trade through free trade agreements.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
We have secured trade agreements with 70 countries plus the EU, partners that accounted for £808bn of UK bilateral trade in 2021.
The Department for International Trade can report significant progress this year. We have signed a free trade agreement (FTA) with New Zealand and a Digital Economy Agreement with Singapore. We have completed three rounds of FTA negotiations with India and one round with Canada. We have completed a Call for Input on an enhanced FTA with Israel, and launched FTA negotiations with Mexico, Switzerland and Greenland. We are preparing to launch FTA negotiations with the Gulf Cooperation Council.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what recent steps they have taken to increase the proportion of UK trade through free trade agreements.
Answered by Lord Grimstone of Boscobel
We have secured free trade agreements (FTAs) with 70 countries plus the EU, covering trade worth £772 billion in 2020. So far, this year, we have signed an FTA with New Zealand and a Digital Economy Agreement with Singapore, commenced the second round of FTA negotiations with India, launched a consultation for an enhanced FTA with Israel, and launched FTA negotiations with Greenland. We are preparing for FTA negotiations with the Gulf Cooperation Council, Canada and Mexico, which we expect to launch later this year.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 23 June 2021 to Question 16051, aside from Canada, Chile, Japan, Mexico, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam, which of the 60 other non-EU countries with which the UK has signed continuity trade agreements are not among the 145 countries where GREAT campaign activity has taken place.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The GREAT campaign is designed to be used in every country around the world, but to date there are a small number of countries where there has either not been sufficient HMG presence or opportunity to use the campaign. No country is out of scope for its use. The countries that have not yet used the campaign are:
Antigua and Barbuda
Bahamas
Belize
Dominica
Faroe Islands
Grenada
Kiribati
Liechtenstein
Maldives
Nauru
Nicaragua
Palestinian Authority
Papua New Guinea
St. Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Sierra Leone
Tonga
Tuvalu
Vanuatu
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 23 June 2021 to Question 16051, aside from Canada, Chile, Japan, Mexico, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam, which of the 60 other non-EU countries with which the UK has signed continuity trade agreements are not among the 145 countries where GREAT campaign activity has taken place.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The GREAT campaign is designed to be used in every country around the world, but to date there are a small number of countries where there has either not been sufficient HMG presence or opportunity to use the campaign. No country is out of scope for its use. The countries that have not yet used the campaign are:
Antigua and Barbuda
Bahamas
Belize
Dominica
Faroe Islands
Grenada
Kiribati
Liechtenstein
Maldives
Nauru
Nicaragua
Palestinian Authority
Papua New Guinea
St. Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Sierra Leone
Tonga
Tuvalu
Vanuatu
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Melton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with international partners on ensuring the recognition of UK geographical indications in foreign markets; and what steps his Department has taken to ensure that recognition in multilateral trade bodies.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The UK has successfully signed a number of trade agreements which provide continued protection for iconic UK geographical indications in foreign markets, including with the Andean Community, Canada, Switzerland, Ukraine and Singapore. The UK-Japan Comprehensive Partnership Agreement will also offer new protection for additional UK geographical indications.
We continue to seek the best deal for UK geographical indications in all of our ongoing negotiations with international trading partners and through multilateral trade bodies such as the World Trade Organisation.