Trade: Advisory Bodies

(asked on 13th January 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 14 December 2020 to Question 127536, if she will publish a full list of the Thematic Working Groups established by the Government to include the (a) membership and (b) terms of reference of each group and (c) dates on which those groups have so far met.


Answered by
Ranil Jayawardena Portrait
Ranil Jayawardena
This question was answered on 18th January 2021

The Department has established a cohort of cross-government Thematic Working Groups (TWGs), of which eight are currently in operation: Continuity; Customs; Financial Services; Intellectual Property; Procurement; Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs); Sustainability; and Trade for Development. We are in the process of establishing two further TWGs covering: Cross-Cutting Services; and Technical Barriers to Trade.

The TWGs have met 15 times to date since they were established in October 2020. A review of these groups’ membership is ongoing and expected to conclude shortly, together with a decision on whether membership and terms of reference will be published. The table below shows how many meetings the eight established groups have had and the dates on which they were held.

TWG name

Total number of meetings held to date

Date of each meeting held

Continuity

5

23/10/2020 20/11/2020 15/12/2020 29/12/2020 05/01/2021

Customs

2

09/10/2020 11/12/2020

Financial Services

2

06/11/2020 15/12/2020

Intellectual Property

1

19/11/2020

Procurement

2

07/12/2020 14/01/2021

SMEs

1

19/11/2020

Sustainability

1

05/11/2020

Trade for Development

1

14/10/2020

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