Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 31 January 2018 to Question 125208, how many (a) staff and (b) contracted staff were involved in (i) replicating agreements and (ii) negotiating with counterparties and what experience of negotiating each of those staff had for each agreement listed on the European Commission’s website.

The task of ensuring continuity of EU trade agreements as we leave the EU is not area of work that has been consigned to one team or a single department. Rather, it is a cross -government project with the Department of International Trade’s 450 -strong Trade Policy Group (TPG) working closely with other government departments to ensure continuity of these agreements.

TPG has staff with international negotiating experience drawn from working in a wide range of international organisations, including EU institutions. Over 115 TPG staff have worked on, or represented, UK interests in bilateral and multilateral free trade arrangements, such as TTIP and CETA, and at WTO Ministerial Conferences.