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Trade Agreements: Australia

Answer

Engagement on the UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement is taking place with all parts of the UK at all levels. Officials from the governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland receive regular updates from the negotiation team, on top of being involved in technical policy discussions.

The Department for International Trade has created engagement structures at all levels to ensure a constructive approach to working with the Devolved Administrations. These include the quarterly Ministerial Forum for Trade, regular bilateral Ministerial meetings, the six-weekly Senior Officials Group, Chief Negotiator calls running parallel to negotiation rounds, six-weekly chapter-specific policy roundtables, and regular working level engagement throughout the sprint. The programme of engagement totals hundreds of hours at official level and dozens at Ministerial level.

In the negotiations, the Government is acting on behalf of the whole UK family and the overall principle is to ensure all parts of the UK benefit from any deal - including Northern Ireland, which could benefit from tariff liberalisation on specialised machinery, for example. The Government has engaged extensively with the Devolved Administrations on all trade policy issues, including the formulation of trade negotiation positions.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

13248

Session

2021-22

Subjects

Devolution Australia Trade agreements

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk