Recommendation 45

Given the claimed economic impact of the sectoral agreements envisaged in the Common Understanding is larger than that of most Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), we recommend that the Government mirror the Department for Business and Trade’s commitments on transparency of FTA negotiations in current (and future) negotiations with the EU. This means it would publish, at a minimum, “Strategic Approaches” for the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement, emissions trading systems linkage, electricity trading and youth mobility negotiations with the EU; conduct a Call for Evidence on each of these; as well as commit to publishing updates after each formal negotiating round with the EU. This would improve transparency of the negotiations, without providing a running commentary, and should enable key stakeholders to help inform the UK negotiating position in the current phase of the talks, and spot potential problems before the agreements are finalised. (Recommendation, Paragraph 120) 94