Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

EU Trade Agreements: Rollover with non-EU Countries

Thursday 19 November 2020 · 2 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 1 Partly answered 1 Not answered 0

Key points

  • We have made good progress in securing trade deals with 52 countries.
  • The Minister rejected the Ghana deal as a substantial departure from the EU deal.
  • The Japan deal includes provisions going beyond the scope of the EU agreement.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 Lloyd Russell-Moyle Lab
Brexit
Context

The MP is inquiring about the progress made in securing EU trade agreements with non-EU countries post-Brexit.

Question

What recent progress has been made in securing the rollover of EU trade agreements with non-EU countries?

Answer from Elizabeth Truss (The Minister for International Trade)

We have made good progress. In under two years, we have agreed trade deals with 52 countries, covering £146 billion of trade, accounting for 74% of the value of total trade with non-EU countries that we set out to secure agreements with.

Answered
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Q2 Lloyd Russell-Moyle Lab
Brexit Business & Trade
Context

The MP is questioning the government's approach to rolling over EU trade agreements, specifically mentioning discrepancies in how the Ghana and Japan deals are being handled.

Question

We learn from The Telegraph that the Minister has rejected the Ghana deal because it was a “substantial departure” from the EU deal, but she says that the Japan deal goes far beyond the EU deal. What is it? Are the Government exercising new British sovereignty to produce far-reaching new deals, or are they just rolling over and accepting the same deals that we already had?

Answer from Elizabeth Truss (The Minister for International Trade)

The answer to the hon. Gentleman is that we are seeking to roll over the Ghana deal, as we are other deals, but with Japan, we have gone through the process of producing a scoping assessments. No, we were very clear that Japan was a deal that would go further and faster than the EU deal, alongside the new deals that we are negotiating with the US, Australia and New Zealand. There is a deal on the table for Ghana to agree to. It has already agreed to the same deal with the EU. There should be no block on Ghana being able to get tariff-free, quota-free access to the UK, and we are very happy to talk to its representatives at any time of the day or night.

Partly answered

Not addressed: Whether the government is exercising new British sovereignty or merely rolling over existing deals was not clearly addressed.

How: No

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