Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department plans to take to identify UK priority sectors for trade expansion with Brazil.

The UK’s new Industrial Strategy sets out ambitious plans for eight growth-driving sectors - Advanced Manufacturing, Clean Energy Industries, Creative Industries, Defence, Digital and Technologies, Financial Services, Life Sciences, and Professional and Business Services. I am keen to integrate the Industrial Strategy with the Trade Strategy so as to build export markets for our key growing sectors.

These sectors are also the focus of my department’s work with Brazil. The Department’s new Ricardo Fund – announced in the Trade Strategy – is funding interventions on Offshore Wind and in the Life Sciences sector to help create new opportunities for UK exporters, and I signed agreements on customs and regulatory cooperation aimed at boosting UK exports on my recent visit to Brazil, where I met with several UK businesses who are keen to expand their work in the country.