Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what recent steps her Department have taken to increase the volume of trade between the UK and the Andean countries.

Last year, my Department for International Trade successfully negotiated and brought into force the United Kingdom-Andean countries trade agreement, covering Colombia, Peru and Ecuador. Peru is a founder member of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership also, and is supportive of our planned accession.

The United Kingdom recently co-chaired trade dialogues with both Colombia and Peru, in which we agreed to work together to boost trade in key sectors, such as services, digital, clean energy and agri-food. As part of our government-to-government deal with Peru, British businesses are working on a £1.7 billion reconstruction of Peruvian public services, following significant damage caused by the climate cycle El Niño in 2017.