The United Kingdom cannot negotiate its own trade agreements while it is still a member of the European Union. The UK remains committed to supporting ongoing EU negotiations with third countries and will remain a strong advocate for free trade.

As the UK leaves the EU, the Government is seeking to ensure continuity for our existing EU trade agreements, including those with: Algeria, Colombia, Egypt, Mexico, South Africa (as part of the Southern African Development Community Economic Partnership Agreement), South Korea and Ukraine, as well as with Vietnam once the EU-Vietnam free trade agreement has been ratified.

The UK continues to support the implementation of the EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the East Africa Community (EAC), including Kenya. If all EAC partners find a way to sign the EPA, the UK will also seek to replicate the effects of this agreement before we leave the EU.

The Government is talking with a range of key trade partners to explore the best ways of delivering our priorities for our trade and investment relationships. These include working groups with Colombia, Mexico, South Korea and Turkey, and commercial dialogues with Argentina and Thailand.

We have introduced legislation which enables the UK to put in place a trade preference scheme for developing countries which will, as a minimum, provide the same level of access as the EU’s scheme. Ethiopia, the Philippines, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burma, Tanzania and Uganda are currently beneficiaries of the EU scheme.

The Department for International Trade (DIT) is working with all the listed countries on promoting trade and investment relationships, including through our overseas network of embassies and High Commissions. The number of visits to these countries by Ministers from DIT are given in the tables below. DIT’s Permanent Secretary (Antonia Romeo) and Second Permanent Secretary (Crawford Falconer) have not visited these countries in the period specified. Visits to these countries by other DIT officials is not recorded centrally.

Details of expenditure for DIT Ministerial travel overseas is published on the Gov.uk website on a quarterly basis: www.gov.uk/government/publications/dit-ministers-meetings-hospitality-gifts-and-overseas-travel-january-to-march-2018.

This Department has submitted recommendations to Number 10 for the position of Trade Envoy to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The UK is at an early stage of commercially focused engagement with DRC. An appointment of a Trade Envoy to the DRC would focus on building up commercial level relationships and build a strategy to encourage UK companies to engage. The Trade Envoy would support HMG programmes to increase investments while reducing engagement risks by addressing the constraints to economic development. The UK aims to work with the Government of DRC and other partners to create a conducive investment climate to drive long-term sustainable development.