Asked by: Suzanne Webb (Conservative - Stourbridge)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what steps she is taking to ensure that negotiations on bilateral trade agreements continue during the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
We have now launched negotiations virtually with the US. The UK government remains in regular contact with the US, Japan, Australia and New Zealand and we will jointly decide how to proceed with each negotiation in a way which respects public health. Our partners remaining willing to make progress on high quality free trade agreements. Increasing transatlantic trade can help our economies bounce back from the economic challenge posed by COVID-19.
Asked by: Stewart Hosie (Scottish National Party - Dundee East)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many staff in her Department have more than (a) one (b) three and (c) five years experience in negotiating trade deals.
Answered by Conor Burns
Our people are drawn from a wide range of backgrounds and have a corresponding range of experience of international trade negotiations, trade remedies and trade defence working on EU trade negotiations such as Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and multilateral agreements in the WTO.
To build the trade policy and negotiating experience in the Department for International Trade (DIT), over the 24 months to end-March 2020, around 350 places will have been taken by people in DIT on Expert Level training in technical areas of trade policy and around a further 350 places taken on Expert Level Free Trade Agreement negotiations training.
Asked by: Lord Jopling (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bates on 29 March (HL6581), whether the US Department of the Treasury has indicated in recent meetings with Her Majesty's Government any change to its opposition to including financial services in trade negotiations, as identified by the EU Committee in its report The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, published on 13 May 2014 (14th Report, Session 2013–14, HL Paper 179).
Answered by Lord Bates
Her Majesty’s Treasury and the US Department of the Treasury have ongoing discussions on a range of financial services issues, including ensuring continuity when the UK leaves the EU. As the UK is currently an EU Member State, trade negotiations are the exclusive competence of the EU Commission and the UK is bound by the duty of sincere cooperation. During the implementation period, the UK will be able to forge its own way by negotiating, ratifying and signing with new partners across the world. We will only bring new arrangements into force after the conclusion of the implementation period.
Asked by: Lord Jopling (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what lessons they have learned from the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations between the EU and the United States with regard to the United States Treasury's difficulties over freeing up barriers in the financial services sector.
Answered by Lord Bates
The European Commission has exclusive competence for common commercial policy and negotiates external trade policy, including on financial services, on behalf of Member States. While the European Commission and the United States discussed financial services in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations, the experience of those negotiations is specific to the trading partners concerned and the position of the United States at that time.
The EU proposed to use TTIP to establish greater regulatory cooperation and support a clearer basis for market access for financial services. In the context of the UK-EU negotiations, the Chancellor of the Exchequer set out in his speech at Canary Wharf that the UK is willing to negotiate with the EU on financial services and the parameters of a future relationship building on a range of precedents including the EU’s ambition in TTIP talks.
Asked by: Hannah Bardell (Scottish National Party - Livingston)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he last discussed with his European counterparts imports of American beef containing artificial growth hormones.
Answered by George Eustice
We are in regular contact with our European counterparts on sanitary and phytosanitary matters. We will not compromise on issues such as animal welfare and the standards of produce when we leave the EU. During both November 2016 and January 2017 Agriculture and Fish Council, the EU’s Free Trade Agreement negotiations were discussed, which included the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and considerations around food standards and beef containing growth hormones.
Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent North)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether he plans to include cross-border data flows in a future trade agreement with (a) the US and (b) the EU.
Answered by Mark Garnier
The Government is working to deliver the best outcomes for the UK. We are exploring a range of options to maximise the opportunities for the UK’s future trade relations and will seek the best possible outcome for the UK as a whole.
As part of plans for EU exit, we will consider carefully how best to maintain our ability to share, receive and protect EU data with other EU member states.
Similarly, we will consider how to retain existing rights and obligations to foster transatlantic trade in digital information, products and services across sectors.
Asked by: Lord Greaves (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of (1) the current state of play of the TTIP trade negotiations, and (2) the prospect of reaching agreement.
Answered by Lord Price
The UK has always been supportive of deepening trade relations between the US and the EU and continues to support an ambitious, wide-ranging TTIP deal which opens markets. It is for the Commission and the new US Administration to discuss TTIP in the first instance. We welcome the significant progress that has been made to date.
A joint EU-US report was published on 17 January 2017 on progress made in the TTIP negotiations. The Government was notified by the Commission last week that a more detailed technical report is now available, which we are in the process of making accessible to MPs and Peers in the UK’s national TTIP Reading Room.
Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent North)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is the UK's preferred model for a future UK-US trade agreement.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
It is too early to say what exactly could be covered in a future UK-US deal.
Asked by: Helen Goodman (Labour - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions she has had with the Environment Agency on the implications for its remit of the draft Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.
Answered by George Eustice
The Department for International Trade is the lead department on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and has established a process for regular cross-Whitehall engagement with relevant parts of Government, including Defra, to ensure matters arising from the TTIP discussions have been considered appropriately.
Asked by: Helen Goodman (Labour - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has consulted the Office of Water Services on the implications for its remit of the draft Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.
Answered by George Eustice
The Department for International Trade is the lead department on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and has established a process for regular cross-Whitehall engagement with relevant parts of Government, including Defra, to ensure matters arising from the TTIP discussions have been considered appropriately.