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Written Question
Trade Agreements: Parliamentary Scrutiny
Thursday 15th December 2022

Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)

Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of strengthening existing requirements under the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 for parliamentary (a) scrutiny and (b) debate on international trade deals.

Answered by Greg Hands

The Constitutional Reform and Governance Act (CRaG) provides an effective and robust framework for scrutiny of treaties that require ratification, including free trade agreements.

Nevertheless, the Government has also in place a suite of enhanced transparency and scrutiny arrangements that go well beyond the statutory obligations of CRaG.

The Government recognises the importance of Parliament being able to consider new free trade agreements, therefore a debate was held in Government time on 14 November to consider the Australia and New Zealand deals.

Speech in Commons Chamber - Thu 21 Jul 2022
Oral Answers to Questions

"8. What steps she plans to take to help increase trade with the EU. ..."
Rupa Huq - View Speech

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Speech in Commons Chamber - Thu 21 Jul 2022
Oral Answers to Questions

"I, too, welcome the Minister to what I hope is a long and fruitful career. My question is about services, not goods. Our biggest export is the English language—it is the lingua franca of the world, isn’t it?—but the language schools that teach teenagers over the summer months are collapsing …..."
Rupa Huq - View Speech

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Speech in Commons Chamber - Thu 20 Jan 2022
Oral Answers to Questions

"12. What steps she is taking to ensure that protections for exports to third countries negotiated while the UK was a member of the EU are maintained following the UK’s departure from the EU. ..."
Rupa Huq - View Speech

View all Rupa Huq (Lab - Ealing Central and Acton) contributions to the debate on: Oral Answers to Questions
Speech in Commons Chamber - Thu 20 Jan 2022
Oral Answers to Questions

"I listened to what Mr Speaker said—I mean the Minister—[Interruption.] Of course we always listen to everything Mr Speaker says. The Minister’s description does not tally with the experience of my constituent, Danny Hodgson, whose clothes retail business Rivet & Hide made the Financial Times exactly …..."
Rupa Huq - View Speech

View all Rupa Huq (Lab - Ealing Central and Acton) contributions to the debate on: Oral Answers to Questions
Written Question
Trade Agreements: Australia
Thursday 10th June 2021

Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)

Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what recent assessment she has made of the potential merits of excluding the investor-state dispute settlement mechanism from the UK-Australia trade agreement.

Answered by Greg Hands

The precise details of a free trade agreement with Australia are a matter for formal negotiations, and the Government would not seek to pre-empt these discussions.

If it is deemed that a legal mechanism is appropriate for resolving investment disputes, the mechanism will reflect modern practice, deliver fair outcomes of claims, require high ethical standards for arbitrators and include transparent proceedings.

There has never been a successful Investor State Dispute Settlement claim against the United Kingdom, nor has the threat of potential claims affected its legislation.

Speech in Commons Chamber - Thu 25 Feb 2021
Oral Answers to Questions

"Mounting costs are killing one of our biggest exports—culture—with additional duties on physical product and performers. My constituent Andy Smart has regularly performed at two comedy/ski festivals, but now one of them no longer accepts Brits, preferring the Irish, and the other has been cancelled as unviable because of Brexit …..."
Rupa Huq - View Speech

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Written Question
Pesticides: India
Thursday 25th February 2021

Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)

Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what assessment she has made of the effect of pesticides such as Paraquat, which are banned in the UK, being exported to India in the context of ongoing farmers’ protests in that country.

Answered by Graham Stuart

The export of paraquat is regulated under the Great Britain Prior Informed Consent (PIC) regulatory regime for the export and import of certain hazardous chemicals. Companies intending to export any of these chemicals from Great Britain must notify the importing country via the exporter’s Designated National Authority. For Great Britain the Designated National Authority is The Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

Paraquat additionally requires the explicit consent of the importing country before export can take place. India allows the import of Paraquat and the exchange of information that PIC provides allows all countries to make informed decisions on the import of those chemicals and on how to handle and use them safely.

The farmers’ protests in India are a domestic matter for the Government of India.

Speech in Commons Chamber - Thu 14 Jan 2021
Oral Answers to Questions

" The Prime Minister promised barrier-free trade with the EU post Brexit, but local firms that now find costly obstacles in VAT issues are finding the opposite, so could the Government please rectify the situation for firms that import from outside the EU to export to within it, because small …..."
Rupa Huq - View Speech

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Speech in Commons Chamber - Mon 11 Jan 2021
Global Britain

"Global Britain—a lofty ideal, but with recent months witnessing a dramatic reduction of the UK’s international aid and a hard Brexit, I want to strike a note of realism into the Government’s one-way triumphalism.

Less than two weeks ago, we saw our relationship with our biggest and closest trading partner, …..."
Rupa Huq - View Speech

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