Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that trade negotiations include low and middle-income countries in Africa when the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Greg Hands
We are considering our future trading relationships with a broad range of partners as we prepare to leave the EU. The UK remains committed to ensuring developing countries can reduce poverty through enhanced trading opportunities. The Government’s priority is to deliver continuity in our trading arrangements, including with developing countries. We will seek to transition existing Economic Partnership Agreements with African, and also Pacific and Caribbean, countries and regions. We will establish a unilateral trade preference scheme which will, as a minimum, provide the same level of access to around 70 developing countries as the EU’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences.