Select committee: International Agreements Committee
Recommendation 21
9th Report - Scrutiny of international agreements: UK-New Zealand free trade agreement
Published 4 Nov 2022
Paragraph 66
International Agreements Committee UK-New Zealand trade negotiations All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We reiterate our recommendation that the Government should publish a trade policy, showing how it links into broader foreign policy, security, defence and other domestic objectives, as well as labour, women’s and human rights, and the environment. This will enable trade policy to be understood in relation to other priorities and enable us to assess the impacts and trade-offs.
From: International Agreements Committee, 9th Report - Scrutiny of international agreements: UK-New Zealand free trade agreement, paragraph 66, 4 November 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 13 January 2023.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government welcomes the Committee's support for ratifying the UK-New Zealand FTA, responds on the report's recommendations, and says it does not plan to publish a further trade policy document.
- On monitoring tariff rate quotas and preference usage, the government says DIT "has committed to publish a biennial FTA monitoring report" on implementation, emerging impacts and whether utilisation can be enhanced.
- On Geographical Indications, it notes New Zealand has no agri-food GI scheme currently; should New Zealand introduce one, the UK "will be able to amend" the agreement, and it will keep the Committee and stakeholders updated if any changes are made.
- On engagement with the devolved administrations, it says it is "in the process of delivering on the expanded approach to information sharing" and intends to work with them to support more detailed contributions.
- On a published trade policy, it says it has a trade strategy and that "we do not plan to publish any further material".