Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will make it his policy to oppose the provisional implementation of the EU-Canada trade agreement when it is discussed at the EU Foreign Affairs Council in June 2016.

Anna Soubry

The EU–Canada Comprehensive and Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) will deliver jobs and growth for the UK, with independent analysis suggesting the deal could be worth up to £1.3 billion per year to the UK economy.

We expect CETA to be a “mixed” agreement, covering areas of both EU and Member State competence. In this case, the EU Council could decide to provisionally apply the parts of CETA which fall within EU competence. The Government supports this approach as it will allow the UK to benefit from provisions such as reduced duties on imports and exports as soon as possible. This has been discussed with the European Commission on a number of occasions, most at the Trade Foreign Affairs Council that took place in Brussels this month. The Council will negotiate which provisions of CETA should be applied provisionally by the EU once the final text has been received.