Asked by: Andrew Bridgen (Independent - North West Leicestershire)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what steps her Department is taking to increase trade with central Asian countries.
Answered by Ranil Jayawardena
Fast growing economies such as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan provide an abundance of opportunities for British business across a wide range of sectors.
My Department is supporting British business to grab these opportunities through trade dialogues and regular business to business exchanges, including the annual United Kingdom-Kazakhstan Inter-Governmental Commission that I co-chaired late last year in Astana.
We are working hard to remove trade barriers with Uzbekistan too.For example, an update to their Intellectual Property regime, removing barriers for British businesses could be worth over £11million per year.
Asked by: Andrew Bridgen (Independent - North West Leicestershire)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what plans the Government has to remove external tariffs on technical parts and components required for solar technology once the UK has left the EU.
Answered by George Hollingbery
The Department for International Trade published a call for evidence on the 28 November 2017 with the aim of identifying which UK businesses produce goods currently subject to anti-dumping, or anti-subsidy measures, or to on-going investigations related to these.
It asked those businesses to state whether they support, are neutral to, or oppose the maintaining of those measures, when the UK begins to operate its independent trade remedy framework. It asked for data about those businesses’ production and sales, and total UK production and sales.
Measures which meet the criteria set out in the call for evidence will be maintained once the UK begins to operate its independent trade remedy framework. Measures which do not meet the criteria will be terminated – cutting unnecessary costs for UK businesses and consumers.
The Call for Evidence closed on 30 March 2018. However, we continue to invite other interested parties to provide relevant information for measures of interest to them. This will enable us to make an accurate assessment of applications to maintain measures.
Asked by: Andrew Bridgen (Independent - North West Leicestershire)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what steps the Government is taking to promote trade between the UK and the least-developed countries.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
In June we announced that on leaving the EU, we will secure existing duty-free access to UK markets for around 48 Least Developed Countries. Once we have left, we will seek to strengthen existing support and seize new opportunities to increase trade links. Additionally, the UK’s aid programmes encourage economic growth, helping to ensure that this growth improves conditions for those living in poverty.
UK Export Finance has appetite to support UK exports to 41 Least Developed Countries. Following the 2016 Autumn Statement, it has increased the support it has available for 6 of these countries, and will be reviewing its support for others.
Asked by: Andrew Bridgen (Independent - North West Leicestershire)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what steps he is taking to ensure that future UK Trade Defence Instruments effectively guard against protectionist dumping.
Answered by Mark Garnier
This department is working to ensure that the UK will have in place an effective trade defence remedies framework and will be able to take action against unfair trading practices, upon the UK’s departure from the EU.
Asked by: Andrew Bridgen (Independent - North West Leicestershire)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what work his Department has undertaken on developing affordable, accessible and adequate UK trade defence instruments.
Answered by Mark Garnier
This department is working to ensure that the UK will have in place an effective trade defence remedies framework and will be able to take action against unfair trading practices, upon the UK’s departure from the EU.