Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether the Government plans to meet with the (a) Australian, (b) New Zealand and (c) Canadian governments to discuss the potential effect on trade with those countries of the UK leaving the EU.

Until we have left the EU, the UK will remain a member of the EU with all of the rights and obligations that membership entails. In due course, Britain will be leaving the EU. This offers us an opportunity to forge a new role for ourselves in the world: to negotiate, in time, our own trade agreements and to be a positive and powerful force for free trade. We recognise the need for a smooth transition which minimises disruption to our trading relationships. It would be wrong to set out unilateral positions at this stage. Already though we have seen expressions of interest in future trade deals with the United Kingdom, such as from the Prime Minister of Australia.