Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :

To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress has been made in regards to a future customs agreement with the EU.

The Government is seeking a customs arrangement which fulfills three key objectives:

• to keep trade with the EU as frictionless as possible;

• to avoid a ‘hard border’ with Northern Ireland; and

• to establish an independent UK trade policy.

In the Future Partnership Paper, the Government set out two approaches for our future customs arrangements with the EU - a Highly Streamlined Customs Arrangement, and a New Customs Partnership. Both of these would fulfil our objectives, but we recognise there are unresolved issues with both, which is why there are two ministerial groups looking at each model.

The final customs arrangements that we have with the EU will be subject to the outcome of negotiations.