Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 6 November 2017 to Question 111584, on World Trade Organisation (WTO), what his planned timetable is for the (a) preparation and (b) agreement with the WTO of the amended schedules.

In order to replicate as far as possible current obligations under the WTO as we leave the European Union, the Government is preparing full UK-specific schedules under the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade – goods) and the GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services – services). The Government is also preparing a UK-specific Annex on Article II (Most-Favoured-Nation Treatment) exemptions under the GATS. The Government plans to submit these schedules and list of exemptions to the WTO ahead of the UK’s leaving the EU, and to assert them after leaving the EU.