Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, which external recruitment agencies are used by his Department's non-departmental public bodies.
Answered by Greg Hands
The Department for International Trade currently has no non-departmental public bodies.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, when he last raised with the US administration the issue of the 300 per cent tariff imposed on Bombardier by the its Department of Commerce.
Answered by Greg Hands
HMG Ministers and Officials have been actively engaging with the US Administration, Canadian Government, Boeing and Bombardier to facilitate a resolution to this dispute. Ministers and senior officials have had numerous calls and meetings with the US administration and Congress, including with Boeing in relation to this dispute specifically. In addition, the Prime Minister has raised this issue a number of times with President Trump.
The UK Government has maintained that Boeing’s complaint to the US Department of Commerce is unjustified, and we will continue to strongly defend our case.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether his Department plans to carry out impact assessments on future bilateral trade deals prior to their ratification.
Answered by Greg Hands
As outlined in the White Paper ‘Preparing for our future UK trade policy’, we remain committed to a transparent, fair, and rules-based approach to international trade. We will ensure Parliament has an appropriate role to play in the scrutiny of new UK trade treaties.
In ratifying EU free trade agreements we already provide impact assessments to Parliament to enable Members from both Houses to consider the effects of these agreements for the UK.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 19 December 2017 to Question 118985, on trade agreements, how many trades unions he has met with; and how many times he has met with each of those trades unions.
Answered by Greg Hands
The Department for International Trade has met with a number of trade unions on a range of occasions since its formation, at Ministerial and official level. These meetings covered a variety of topics. As part of our commitment to transparency, we publish quarterly records of Ministerial meetings, available on the Department for International Trade’s .gov.uk website.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 11 December 2017 to Question 117618, on Iron and Steel: China, what recent discussions he has had with trade unions on (a) trade remedies to be adopted by the UK after leaving the EU and (b) future free trade deals.
Answered by Greg Hands
The Department for International Trade (DIT) engages regularly with stakeholders, including trade unions, and welcomes their views on trade remedies and future trade deals. DIT has held meetings on a number of occasion during 2017, including roundtables and bilateral meetings with trade unions, on topics including the future UK trade remedies framework and future trade deals. The Government will continue to engage with and listen to the views of stakeholders when developing the UK's future trade policy.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 4 December 2017 to Question 116341, whether his Department plans to replicate the 19 trade remedies currently in force against Chinese steel to which the UK adheres through its EU membership after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Greg Hands
DIT is preparing a UK trade remedies framework in readiness for the UK leaving the EU.
In support of this, the Department has issued a call for evidence to identify which UK businesses produce goods currently subject to anti-dumping or anti-subsidy measures, or to an on-going investigation related to these.
It asks 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.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what account his Department took of outstanding indictments in the International Criminal Court before agreeing to the joint trade conference with Sudan set for 12 December 2017.
Answered by Mark Garnier - Shadow Parliamentary Under Secretary (Work and Pensions)
Trade can help drive economic growth, create jobs and raise standards and we are supporting the Government of Sudan to make reforms to create a more inclusive and prosperous Sudan. There has been no change in the UK’s policy on the International Criminal Court (ICC) indictment of President Bashir. We continue to make clear that we expect compliance with arrest warrants for all those indicted, and we remind countries of their legal obligations to cooperate with the ICC.
The UK-Sudan Trade and Investment Forum is a private business venture. We are not providing any financial or administrative support, however, HMG officials will attend.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether the Government has made an assessment of whether the Chinese Government has been involved in steel dumping in the last 10 years; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Greg Hands
Trade remedies are an EU competence. It is for industry to demonstrate prima facie evidence of dumping that is causing material injury to EU producers, to the European Commission. We encourage industry to present this evidence to the Commission, where there is evidence of dumping and material injury. Where evidence is sufficient to justify an investigation, the Commission will do so and present any proposals for applying duties to Member States.
The EU currently has 45 measures in place against steel or steel products, 19 of which are against China. As we operate our independent trade policy, we will put in place our own trade remedies framework.