It is certainly true that now that the EU has secured a Mercosur deal, having taken 25 years to do so, there is a danger that British business will be left out and excluded because there will be preferential rates for European businesses. It is something we are looking at very closely, and I hope to be able to update the right hon. Gentleman very soon. As he knows, I am passionate about trying to increase our exports to Latin America. I would just note that some companies, such as Inca Kola, were created by British firms.

As co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on Latin America, I was interested to note that, after 25 years of negotiations, the EU has announced a trade deal with the Mercosur South American trading group. What is the position of the UK Government on a trading agreement with Mercosur?

The EU-Mercosur trade agreement has not been signed yet and is a matter for the EU. We do not expect that it will impact UK food production, supply or security.

Mercosur countries are important partners for the UK and I am personally committed to strengthening our bilateral trading relationships to remove barriers to trade and help grow UK exports. I recently visited Brazil, where I signed agreements on customs, regulatory reform and export credit and pushed Brazil to complete the Double Taxation Agreement; and Argentina to further UK interests on whisky, financial services and air services.

The UK is not currently negotiating a Free Trade Agreement with Mercosur. Any decision to seek to negotiate a Free Trade Agreement with Mercosur would be communicated to the House in the usual way.

The department has not made an assessment of the trade agreement between the EU and Mercusor. The department continuously monitors agri-food markets through the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group.

The UK has closely monitored recent forest fires in Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and Brazil. The UK's support for sustainable development and climate change adaptation should reduce drought impacts and wildfires long-term. In Ecuador and Peru, we are contributing up to £12.3 million through the Andes-Amazon Biodiverse Landscape Fund and in Brazil, through the Amazon Fund (£80 million contributed, with a further £35 million committed). In Paraguay, we support capacity building on forest fire mitigation and response amongst indigenous and local communities. Climate Minister Kerry McCarthy MP visited the Amazon Rainforest last week, meeting firefighters on the front-line using equipment purchased through the Amazon Fund.

The FCDO is a significant contributor to global humanitarian pooled funds which are activated to respond to a humanitarian crisis such as those caused by El Nino. This includes the UN Crisis Emergency Response Fund (CERF), Red Cross Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) and the NGO Start Fund.The UK is providing expertise through a multi-year Government-to-Government Agreement with Peru to support the reconstruction of the country's public service facilities following severe damage caused by El Niño flooding in 2017 and supporting Peru through the Start Fund and Save the Children in its humanitarian response to flooding caused by heavy rainfall and high sea temperatures in northern Peru in March this year. Since June 2023, the Start Fund has also provided £140,000 to support NGO responses to the health, water and food security impacts of drought in Colombia. These responses targeted assistance to thousands of people across the region.

The FCDO is a significant contributor to global humanitarian pooled funds which are activated to respond to a humanitarian crisis such as those caused by El Nino. This includes the UN Crisis Emergency Response Fund (CERF), Red Cross Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) and the NGO Start Fund. Since June 2023, the Start Fund has provided £750,000 across the region to support responses to water, health and food security impacts of drought, particularly in Venezuela, Guatemala and Colombia, with these responses targeting around 25,000 people.

The UK is concerned by the recent steps taken by Venezuela, with respect to the Essequibo region of Guyana. The UK supports Guyana's territorial integrity. We believe the unilateral actions of Venezuela are unjustified and should cease. We are clear that the border was settled in 1899 through international arbitration.

We will continue to work with allies and partners in the region to ensure that the territorial integrity of Guyana is respected. I [Minister Rutley] have not discussed the situation with counterparts in Suriname or in France's overseas department of French Guiana. Our officials in Paris have been in contact with French counterparts.

As part of this extensive diplomatic engagement, I visited Guyana on 18 December to show UK support for its territorial integrity.

The FCDO's first International Women and Girls Strategy commits us to using the full weight of our diplomatic and development offer to stand up for women's and girls' rights. As I [Minister Rutley] outlined in my speech at Canning House in November, these rights are central to the "values" strategic pillar, one of four tenets that support the UK's approach to Latin America in the near future. The FCDO is providing funding through several initiatives including to end gender-based violence, to support grassroots women's organisations and to promote Women, Peace & Security. The FCDO is currently funding a Latin America gender equality, disability and social inclusion analysis which will be finalised in early 2024.

For force protection reasons we cannot provide precise numbers of deployed personnel in this case, including the British Army Training Support Unit Belize (BATSUB), and on the Falkland Islands and Ascension Island through British Forces South Atlantic Islands (BFSAI). Defence’s permanent presence across these areas is also provided by our resident Defence Attaché sections based in: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Jamaica. These teams also have non-residential responsibility for a range of other countries in the region with Guyana falling under our Caribbean team. Additionally, the Royal Navy have a persistent maritime presence in the South Atlantic and the Caribbean through two Offshore Patrol Vessels.

We remain open to negotiating Youth Mobility Scheme (YMS) arrangements with other countries and territories. However, as each YMS is subject to a bilateral, reciprocal agreement which also provides benefit to UK nationals, with the detail negotiated and agreed between the relevant parties, we are unable to disclose the status of negotiations as they occur. Further details of additional YMS agreements will be announced once they are concluded.

My department is working tirelessly to ensure that the demand for UK expertise in South America’s clean energy transition and infrastructure development is capitalised on.

Recently, the Government supported the development of regulatory frameworks for offshore wind projects in Brazil and Colombia; signed three government-to-government public infrastructure contracts worth £2.5 billion in Peru; and, through UK Export Finance, supported hospital construction and aerospace projects in Brazil and Guyana.

UK businesses working on these projects and more enjoy preferential access under the UK-Andean Countries Free Trade Agreement and UK-Chile Association Agreement, which also benefit those pursuing new opportunities.

The UK has no plans to join the EU’s Association Agreement with Mercosur as our approach is to negotiate our own trade agreements using our freedom outside of the EU.

We are monitoring the progress of EU-Mercosur talks. They reached agreement in principle on a deal in 2019 but the agreement is not yet ratified.

The Mercosur countries are important markets for the UK and we are committed to strengthening our trading relationship.

A recent demonstration of that commitment was the signing of a Double Taxation Agreement with Brazil in November. When ratified, the agreement will dramatically reduce tax uncertainty in cross-border trade.

Respect for democratic principles and fundamental human rights underpins the United Kingdom–Andean Countries Trade Agreement. The treaty allows for ‘appropriate measures’ to be taken by any member state ‘in accordance with international law’ where breaches occur. The agreement also includes a Trade and Sustainable Development (TSD) chapter, which aims to ensure that both Parties encourage high levels of environmental and labour protection. This chapter provides for an annual TSD Sub-Committee, which is an opportunity for the UK to raise concerns with partner countries where we believe there have been violations of workers’ rights or environmental commitments. The Sub- Committee last met in April 2022.

This year, we reached the final phase of the process to join the £9 trillion GDP Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) trade bloc, which includes Chile and Peru.

Beyond trade agreements, we are working with regional partners to grow trade and open markets. British pork producers are now able to export to Chile, a market worth over £280 million in 2021 and, through initiatives like our annual roadshow, we are helping British businesses to seize opportunities in the region, like GlaxoSmithKline who are set to open a new vaccine distribution centre in Uruguay.