Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that legal mechanisms are in place to ensure that third countries, with whom the UK has a trading arrangement through EU membership, will continue to provide the same terms of trade during the implementation period; and whether the UK will be able to retaliate to changes such as increased tariffs on British goods during transition if the UK is part of the Customs Union.

The agreement reached between the EU and the UK, on the terms of the implementation period sets out that the UK is to be treated as a Member State, for the purposes of international agreements during the Implementation Period.

The agreed Implementation Period will give businesses and citizens certainty, that common rules will remain in place until the end of the period, meaning businesses will be able to trade on the same terms and have the same protections as now, up until the end of 2020.