Question to the Wales Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what discussions he has had with Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on (a) UK’s trade deal with Australia and (b) safeguards for Welsh Lamb.

Wales Office ministers have regular discussions with departments across Whitehall on a range of matters, including the trade deal with Australia and safeguards for Welsh lamb. Leaving the EU has given us the ability to strike our own trade deals, creating new opportunities for UK businesses to trade internationally.  The UK Government’s future trade agreements will bring further investments into Wales, with the mutual opening of markets. Trade deals mean more opportunities for businesses across the UK, including Wales.

The UK exported £438.1m worth of lamb to the world last year, and we want those numbers to grow.  For sectors such as lamb, the volume of duty-free imports to the UK from Australia will be limited by Tariff Rate Quotas (TRQ) and Product Specific Safeguards (PSS). TRQs will set a maximum level for tariff-free imports for up to 10 years, whilst PSSs will allow the UK to impose higher tariffs when imports exceed a certain threshold in years 10 to 15.

In addition, we also have a general bilateral safeguard mechanism that will provide a temporary safety net for industry, if it faces serious injury or threat from increased imports as a result of tariff elimination under the FTA.