Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :

To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, whether his Department has conducted an assessment of the effect on exports from Yorkshire to the EU of not having a trade agreement with the EU.

As part of our work preparing to make a success of our departure from the European Union, we are carrying out a broad range of analysis as you would expect a responsible Government to do.

Officials across government engage regularly on regional issues to ensure each department’s work programmes consider the impact of Brexit on regions and nations of the UK, including Yorkshire. In the last year three present and former DExEU ministers visited Yorkshire. In October, the Secretary of State and the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State Steve Baker met with the Northern Combined Authority Mayors in York. Prior to that, former Parliamentary Under Secretary of State Lord Bridges hosted a roundtable in Leeds with Yorkshire business leaders and visited a manufacturing site.

As we move into the second phase of negotiations we are confident of agreeing a bold and ambitious Free Trade Agreement with the EU that is of greater scope than any such existing agreement. We believe that securing a future partnership between the UK and EU is in the interests of both sides, so we approach these negotiations anticipating success. We do not want or expect an outcome where no trade agreement is agreed.