Forty-Fifth Report - Progress with trade negotiations

Select Committee
Public Accounts Committee HC 993 18 March 2022
Report Status Response document linked Recorded deadline: 18 May 2022

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Conclusions & Recommendations 29 items (8 recs)
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Government response
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Forty Fifth report from Session 2021-22 · published 27 May 2022
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Recommendations & Conclusions

29 results
2 Recommendation
The Department has not set out how it will measure the benefits and outcomes of...
Recommendation
The Department has not set out how it will measure the benefits and outcomes of its programme of trade negotiations. The Department has published impact assessments, including projected economic benefits for each of the new FTAs it is pursuing, and … Read more
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3 Recommendation
The Department is not doing enough to help businesses, particularly SMEs, to take advantage of...
Recommendation
The Department is not doing enough to help businesses, particularly SMEs, to take advantage of opportunities offered by new trade agreements. Businesses need to understand and take advantage of the opportunities arising from trade agreements if agreements are to deliver … Read more
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4 Recommendation
The farming industry has concerns about the effect of significant competition from imported Australian meat,...
Recommendation
The farming industry has concerns about the effect of significant competition from imported Australian meat, and there is a lack of clarity on the potential environmental impacts from increased trade with Australia. The FTA with Australia signed in December 2021 … Read more
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5 Recommendation
Parliament and the public are not being provided with clear and transparent information to understand...
Recommendation
Parliament and the public are not being provided with clear and transparent information to understand the impact of trade agreements. Business associations and consumer groups are concerned that it is unclear how trade policy aligns with other policy objectives, and … Read more
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6 Recommendation
The Department has not done enough to support effective Parliamentary scrutiny of trade agreements.
Recommendation
The Department has not done enough to support effective Parliamentary scrutiny of trade agreements. Despite the Department making additional commitments beyond the statutory framework, the International Trade Committee has not been provided with information from the Department in sufficient time … Read more
HM Treasury
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1 Conclusion
On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence...
Conclusion
On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the Department for International Trade (the Department), the Cabinet Office and the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra).2 We were also joined … Read more
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7 Conclusion
In addition to the programme of negotiations, the Department also needs to implement and review...
Conclusion
In addition to the programme of negotiations, the Department also needs to implement and review existing agreements.14 The Department told us that it has set up governance committees to provide an overview of how FTAs are being implemented in practice … Read more
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8 Conclusion
The Department aims to secure agreements with countries representing 80% of total UK trade by...
Conclusion
The Department aims to secure agreements with countries representing 80% of total UK trade by the end of 2022. This aim is stated in the Department’s 2020–21 annual report and accounts and is a government manifesto commitment. The National Audit … Read more
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9 Conclusion
We noted that the Department is quite a long way from reaching the 80% target...
Conclusion
We noted that the Department is quite a long way from reaching the 80% target and asked the Department when it expects to meet it. The Department told us that it thinks it will reach the 80% target but that … Read more
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10 Conclusion
A deal with the US would contribute 16.8% towards achieving the 80% target as the...
Conclusion
A deal with the US would contribute 16.8% towards achieving the 80% target as the US is the UK’s largest trading partner.21 However, negotiations with the US are not currently progressing. The Department told us that in the meantime it … Read more
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11 Conclusion
We asked the Department about the value of state-to-UK bilateral agreements, in terms of contributing...
Conclusion
We asked the Department about the value of state-to-UK bilateral agreements, in terms of contributing to the 80% target. The Department could not tell us and thought this would be hard to calculate. The Department said that it had not … Read more
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12 Conclusion
The Department set out four measures in its Outcome Delivery Plan (ODP) for 2021–22 to...
Conclusion
The Department set out four measures in its Outcome Delivery Plan (ODP) for 2021–22 to measure its progress on its programme of trade negotiations. One of these measures, described in the previous section, is the percentage of UK trade with … Read more
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13 Conclusion
The Department has published an impact or scoping assessment for each new FTA it is...
Conclusion
The Department has published an impact or scoping assessment for each new FTA it is pursuing to help businesses and the public understand the potential economic benefits of the agreement and to support Parliamentary scrutiny.29 For example, the impact assessment … Read more
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14 Conclusion
We asked what the Department was doing to measure the actual benefits of trade agreements.
Conclusion
We asked what the Department was doing to measure the actual benefits of trade agreements. The Department told us that it is committed to monitoring and evaluating the impacts of agreements.33 For example, it has committed to publishing monitoring reports … Read more
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15 Conclusion
We asked the Department how it planned to support businesses, particularly small and medium-sized businesses...
Conclusion
We asked the Department how it planned to support businesses, particularly small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs), to take advantage of the opportunities in trade agreements.36 The Department’s 2020 survey of UK registered businesses found that just 28% of surveyed businesses … Read more
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16 Conclusion
The Department acknowledged that “agreements are only as good as the businesses that utilise them”.39...
Conclusion
The Department acknowledged that “agreements are only as good as the businesses that utilise them”.39 It told us that its new export strategy, published in November 2021, had been informed by our previous report on support for exporters, and that … Read more
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17 Conclusion
We asked the Department how it would benchmark its trade promotion activities against those of...
Conclusion
We asked the Department how it would benchmark its trade promotion activities against those of countries such as Singapore and Hong Kong. The Department said that it 34 Q 30; C&AG’s report, para 4.19; Department for International Trade, Impact assessment … Read more
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18 Conclusion
We received written evidence from Logistics UK, asking for specific provisions to be included in...
Conclusion
We received written evidence from Logistics UK, asking for specific provisions to be included in future FTAs to make it easier for UK businesses to trade with the rest of the world. These include, for example, commitments to clear goods … Read more
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19 Conclusion
The FTA with Australia signed on 17 December 2021 removed almost all tariffs and quotas...
Conclusion
The FTA with Australia signed on 17 December 2021 removed almost all tariffs and quotas on agricultural products from Australia over 15 years. Tariff-free beef quotas, for example, would increase from a current 4,669 tonnes to 35,000 tonnes immediately after … Read more
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20 Conclusion
We asked Defra for its assessment of the effect of the Australian FTA on British...
Conclusion
We asked Defra for its assessment of the effect of the Australian FTA on British agriculture. Defra said that it was confident that the phasing in of the liberalisation and the safeguards provide a period of adjustment for the UK … Read more
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21 Conclusion
We asked why the National Farmers Union is so pessimistic about the trade agreement.
Conclusion
We asked why the National Farmers Union is so pessimistic about the trade agreement. The Department admitted that there were risks and downsides to the deal and that a body which represents the interests of farmers would be concerned about … Read more
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22 Conclusion
Defra told us that it has looked very carefully into the question of carbon emissions.57...
Conclusion
Defra told us that it has looked very carefully into the question of carbon emissions.57 Its analysis so far suggests that carbon emissions resulting from shipping goods from Australia to the UK are not the most significant factor when looking … Read more
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23 Recommendation
When we asked the Department about its overarching trade strategy it told us that it...
Recommendation
When we asked the Department about its overarching trade strategy it told us that it aims to have “an open trade environment that promotes jobs and wages and reduces poverty”. The Department plans to achieve this through trade negotiations and … Read more
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24 Conclusion
We asked the Department whether it thought that the general public knew about trade.
Conclusion
We asked the Department whether it thought that the general public knew about trade. The Department told us that based on its survey, the public was “highly supportive of the trade agenda”.65 However, the NAO noted that the Department has … Read more
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25 Conclusion
Which?
Conclusion
Which? also highlighted the importance of reflecting consumer interests more generally and suggested that a consumer chapter should be included in each trade agreement.69 The Department confirmed that the UK-New Zealand trade agreement will include a “first ever” chapter on … Read more
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26 Conclusion
The Department said that it is its job to explain, engage and communicate and that...
Conclusion
The Department said that it is its job to explain, engage and communicate and that when communicating information about trade agreements, it tries to set out what this might mean for consumers.72 We asked the Department why its forecast of … Read more
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27 Recommendation
The Department has made additional commitments beyond the statutory framework under the Constitutional Reform and...
Recommendation
The Department has made additional commitments beyond the statutory framework under the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 (CRAG) for Parliamentary scrutiny of trade agreements, but the Parliamentary committees responsible for trade agreements scrutiny have called for Parliament to have … Read more
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28 Recommendation
The opportunity for Parliament to view negotiating objectives at the outset would aid its scrutiny...
Recommendation
The opportunity for Parliament to view negotiating objectives at the outset would aid its scrutiny of trade agreements.78 There is a precedent in Parliament to share privileged information between government and select committees. For example, this Committee routinely sees privileged … Read more
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29 Conclusion
We also note that the House of Lords International Agreement Committee reported that the statutory...
Conclusion
We also note that the House of Lords International Agreement Committee reported that the statutory framework under CRAG is insufficient to facilitate robust and effective scrutiny of international agreements. As stated in the NAO report, the International Agreement Committee has … Read more
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