Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what assessment the Government has made of the potential effect of the latest draft of the EU-Japan trade deal in (a) maintaining environmental and animal welfare standards and (b) enforcing environmental laws on (i) EU standards in timber to prevent illegal logging and (ii) the international ban on whaling.

The UK has been one of the strongest supporters of the EU-Japan Free Trade Agreement which upholds existing EU commitments to the environment and animal welfare. The UK government is committed to tackling illegal logging and associated trade, and to working with other consumer countries to meet this aim. The UK government strongly supports the global moratorium on commercial whaling and will continue to give appropriate consideration to the implications of the EU-Japan trade deal as it develops.