Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have reached an agreement with the EU to ensure that after leaving the EU the UK will continue to enjoy its current protections under the EU's protected designation of origin, protected geographical indication, and traditional specialities guaranteed schemes; and if so, what are the terms of that agreement.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Shadow Minister (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government recognises the value to UK business of these protections under the relevant EU schemes. The EU has proposed text on these issues in the draft Withdrawal Agreement. Negotiations with the EU are ongoing and as we have said before we will not be providing a running commentary on negotiations.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the benefits and possibility of time-limited extensions on key parts of the EU customs union once the UK has left the EU.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Shadow Minister (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government has made clear that the UK is leaving the Customs Union. By leaving the Customs Union and establishing a new and ambitious customs arrangement with the EU, we will be able to forge new trade relationships with our partners around the world, and maintain as frictionless trade as possible in goods between the UK and EU, providing a positive and powerful voice for free trade.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask Her Majesty's Government to what extent they expect the UK and EU to have mutual recognition of (1) goods, and (2) services, through regulatory equivalence post-Brexit.
Answered by Baroness Anelay of St Johns
The UK Government is committed to making the UK the best place in the world to do business. This will mean fostering a high quality, stable and predictable regulatory environment. We want to minimise the regulatory and market access barriers for both goods and services. However, these discussions will be subject to the negotiations.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their assessment of how World Trade Organisation rules would affect the UK economy, broken down by sector, were the UK to leave the EU without a trade deal.
Answered by Baroness Anelay of St Johns
A future partnership between the UK and EU is in the interests of both sides, and we are confident that we will secure a good deal for the UK as a whole.
A responsible government should, however, prepare for all potential outcomes, including the unlikely scenario in which no mutually satisfactory agreement can be reached. The Government is undertaking a comprehensive programme of analytical work to assess, across a range of scenarios on a sector by sector basis, the economic impacts of exiting the European Union. However, as Parliament has agreed, it would not be appropriate to publish any such information that could damage our negotiating position.