Continuity Trade Agreements: Parliamentary Scrutiny

Edward Leigh Excerpts

Tuesday 17th November 2020 Commons Chamber

[Greg Hands]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for that question, and he is right to highlight the importance of Welsh exports. They are very important to us at the UK Department for International Trade, and we are working very hard to get continuity of our trading arrangements with Canada—the CETA.

[Sir Edward Leigh (Gainsborough) (Con)]

There is one section of the community for which trade deals are literally a matter of life and death for their business, not just some minor tweaking of tariffs and regulations. In the 1930s people could walk all the way from Lincoln to Grimsby across derelict farmland because of the import of cheap American wheat, so in the rush to conclude free trade deals will my right hon. Friend assure me that there will be a gold standard process in this House, equivalent to our old European Scrutiny Committees, so that Members of Parliament who represent rural seats can hold the Government to account and protect our superb farming industry?

[Greg Hands]

My right hon. Friend represents his rural Lincolnshire constituency very effectively. There is no rush to complete future free trade agreements; he mentioned particularly the United States and there was no rush to do that. It is very important that we get the right agreement rather than a quick agreement, and I have already detailed how our commitments to parliamentary scrutiny go well beyond the previous Government’s CRaG procedures; we have added a lot to that.