8th Report - Scrutiny of international agreements: Free Trade Agreement with Turkey, Air Services Agreement with Iceland, and Headquarters Agreement with the Square Kilometre Array Observatory

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.

The government responds point by point to the Committee's report on the UK-Turkey Free Trade Agreement, setting out planned stakeholder engagement, updated rules of origin and a review of the technical barriers to trade chapter, while giving reasons for the Agreement's approach on subsidies and human rights.

• On the call for early consultation, it says it will gather stakeholder views "prior to commencing new discussions with Turkey", similar to engagement carried out for Japan, the US, New Zealand and Australia.
• On rules of origin, it says the Joint Committee adopted a decision to update the Protocol on 15 March 2021, and it "currently anticipate[s]" implementation by statutory instrument on 14 April 2021, with updated business guidance on GOV.UK.
• On subsidies, it explains that transitioning the EU-Turkey arrangements "would have undermined the UK's ability to set its own domestic rules". Subsidies are included in the review clause, which it says provides an opportunity to discuss "more comprehensive subsidy commitments".
• On human rights, it says its priority was to replicate existing EU-Turkey trade effects. It states that upholding the UK's human rights record "can and will go hand-in-hand with our trading ambitions", without committing to new provisions in the review.

Read the government's response ↗ Report an error