Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 7 June 2021 to Question 8561 on Electric Vehicles: Import Duties, how many of the UK’s existing trade agreements do not allow for tariff-free access for exports of electric vehicles.

Tariff-free access for UK exports of electric vehicles is provided by the EU as well as 33 of 67 countries the UK has concluded agreements with, including Japan, South Korea, Switzerland and Turkey. A further 20 countries provide staged preferential tariff reductions until full liberalisation, mainly by 2023.

There are 9 countries that do not offer tariff-free access for exports, and 5 that offer partial tariff-free access. These countries are largely part of Economic Partnership Agreements which are development-focussed free trade agreements, where the UK has usually agreed to liberalise its markets to a greater extent than its developing country partners, including with Kenya and the Pacific States, and remain unchanged from access granted under the original EU agreements.