Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether manufacturers in the Teesside Freeport making tariff-free imports of raw materials can utilise the tariff reductions agreed in the UK-Switzerland Trade Agreement when exporting their finished products to Switzerland.

There are currently prohibitions to duty drawback in the UK-Switzerland free trade agreement. Such restrictions can mean that exporters may not be able to make use of certain freeport advantages while also using the Free Trade Agreements for their exports.

The UK and Switzerland have just updated their rules of origin provisions, meaning that duty drawback restrictions now apply only to a limited number of products in the textile and apparel sector.