Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, pursuant to Article 23.4 of the UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, whether the UK and Japan have established any ad hoc working groups under the Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures.
Answered by Greg Hands
Under the UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, the UK and Japan may establish, if necessary, ad hoc technical working groups under certain specialised committees.
To date, the UK and Japan have not established ad hoc technical working groups under the Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, the Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade, the Committee on Regulatory Cooperation or established an Animal Welfare Technical Working Group under the Joint Committee.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, with reference to Article 23.4 of the UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, whether the UK and Japan have established an Animal Welfare Technical Working Group under the Joint Committee.
Answered by Greg Hands
Under the UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, the UK and Japan may establish, if necessary, ad hoc technical working groups under certain specialised committees.
To date, the UK and Japan have not established ad hoc technical working groups under the Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, the Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade, the Committee on Regulatory Cooperation or established an Animal Welfare Technical Working Group under the Joint Committee.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, with reference to Article 23.4 of the UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, whether the UK and Japan have established any ad hoc working groups under the Committee on Regulatory Cooperation.
Answered by Greg Hands
Under the UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, the UK and Japan may establish, if necessary, ad hoc technical working groups under certain specialised committees.
To date, the UK and Japan have not established ad hoc technical working groups under the Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, the Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade, the Committee on Regulatory Cooperation or established an Animal Welfare Technical Working Group under the Joint Committee.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 5 December to Question 93431 on Trade Agreements: Japan, when each (a) committee and (b) working group established by the UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement has met.
Answered by Greg Hands
The following committees, under the UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, were last held on the following dates:
The next Working Group on Trade and Women's Economic Empowerment is planned for January 2023. The Government is in discussions with Japan about appropriate dates for other committees.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 5 December to Question 93431 on Trade Agreements: Japan, when each (a) committee and (b) working groups established by the UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement plans to meet.
Answered by Greg Hands
The following committees, under the UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, were last held on the following dates:
The next Working Group on Trade and Women's Economic Empowerment is planned for January 2023. The Government is in discussions with Japan about appropriate dates for other committees.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to further increase defence, security, and trade partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan
Both the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary have recently reaffirmed our long-term commitment to the Indo-Pacific region and ambition to strengthen defence, security and trade. The UK continues to deepen our strong bilateral partnerships across the region such as through the UK-India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, the UK-Indonesia Partnership Roadmap to 2024 and a Bilateral Framework with Republic of Korea.
As an ASEAN Dialogue Partner, we will deepen our cooperation with ASEAN and have negotiated a joint Plan of Action with ASEAN for the next 5 years.
The UK has secured free trade agreements with Australia and New Zealand, and has signed free trade deals with Singapore, Vietnam, the Republic of Korea and Japan, which sets the standards in removing friction and increasing confidence in digital trade. We also intend to be the first European country to accede to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. The UK continues to build long-term defence, industrial and technological partnerships through agreements including AUKUS, with Australia and the USA, and we continue to work on closer collaboration on combat air programmes with Japan.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, with reference to Article 20.4 of the UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, on which date the Japanese Government provided the details of their contact point to the UK; and when her Department provided the contact details of their contact point to the Japanese Government.
Answered by Greg Hands
The UK and Japan exchanged contact points for all areas of the agreement in December 2020. Japan shared contact points with the UK on the 18 December 2020. The UK shared contact points with Japan on the 24 December 2020.
The UK small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) contact points have attended all meetings of the Committees and Working Groups established by the UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement. The contact points for UK and Japan have not met to specifically discuss SMEs, but have discussed more generally utilisation of the Free Trade Agreement by business.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, with reference to Article 20.4 of the UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, on what dates the SME contact points for small and medium enterprises have met since the agreement came into effect.
Answered by Greg Hands
The UK and Japan exchanged contact points for all areas of the agreement in December 2020. Japan shared contact points with the UK on the 18 December 2020. The UK shared contact points with Japan on the 24 December 2020.
The UK small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) contact points have attended all meetings of the Committees and Working Groups established by the UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement. The contact points for UK and Japan have not met to specifically discuss SMEs, but have discussed more generally utilisation of the Free Trade Agreement by business.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, with reference to Article 20.4 of the UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, whether either party has recommended to the Joint Committee the inclusion of additional information by the parties in their respective websites.
Answered by Greg Hands
Article 20.4.3 establishes that the UK and Japan may, in accordance with each Party's rules and procedures, recommend the inclusion of additional information by the Parties in their respective websites.
At the first meeting of the UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement’s Committee on Trade in Goods, the UK and Japan discussed including a contact point for Japanese Customs on the UK Government website. This will help Japanese importers identify the correct commodity code for goods entering Japan from the UK.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, with reference to Article 20.2 of the UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, what assessment she has made of the impact of the work of her Department since the agreement came into effect on cooperation between the UK and Japan to (a) identify ways to assist small and medium enterprises to take advantage of commercial agreements and (b) promote and facilitate trade and investment opportunities for small and medium sized enterprises.
Answered by Greg Hands
The UK and Japan are cooperating to implement the dedicated small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) chapter that ensures SMEs are provided with the tools and resources necessary to seize the opportunities of exporting to Japan, including through the use of an SME website and a searchable database for tariffs. The UK and Japan have shared contact points for the SME chapter. The UK SME contact points have attended all meetings of the Committees and Working Groups established by the UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).
To assess the impact of this work, the Department for International Trade has committed to publishing a biennial Free Trade Agreement monitoring report, starting in 2023, and a comprehensive ex-post evaluation report for the UK-Japan CEPA within 5 years of the agreement entering into force. This evaluation will cover a broad range of impacts, including impacts on SMEs.