argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement — House of Commons, 2022-01-05
Topic: Agriculture
Neil Quentin Gordon Parish (Conservative, Centre-right): I also welcome this trade deal, because I think democratically it is of great importance, but of course indigenous food supply and making sure we maintain our high welfare standards are important not only to animal welfare but to keeping British farming competitive. Can the Secretary of State assure me that there is enough protection for British farming in this trade deal? When the Trade and Agriculture Commission comes forward with its findings, will she take heed and go along with them rather than, dare I say it, override them?
UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement — House of Commons, 2022-01-05
Topic: Foreign Trade
Anne-Marie Belinda Trevelyan (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my hon. Friend for his commitment as Chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee and also for his support of the free trade deal and indeed what international trade affords all of our amazing food and drink producers, who have some of the finest foods and drinks in the world. To reassure my hon. Friend on the safeguards, which are as robust as they come, we have secured three levels of protection. The first, the tariff rate quota, sets a maximum level for tariff-free imports in the first 10 years; specific agricultural products are listed and anything above that would face a much higher tariff. The second level applies from years 11 to 15 of the agreement and is known as the product specific safeguard; it has a broadly similar effect, bringing high tariffs above a volume threshold. The third is a general bilateral safeguard mechanism, or temporary safety net, allowing measures to be imposed in the form of increasing tariffs or the suspension of tariff liberalisation completely under the agreement for up to four years, and they can be applied on all products liberalised under the agreement at any point to protect a particular domestic industry. I hope that reassures my hon. Friend.
UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement — House of Commons, 2022-01-05
Topic: Agriculture
Anne-Marie Belinda Trevelyan (Conservative, Centre-right): Absolutely. We hope that the TAC review will give us a good report and we await that; this cohort is there exactly to answer some of the challenges and anxieties brought to us, and I am very hopeful that we will pass its examination well. In addition, going forward, as I mentioned earlier, we are opening up many other new markets for our farmers, not only because we want our indigenous food suppliers to thrive, but because we want to make sure the rest of the world can enjoy their products too.
UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement — House of Commons, 2022-01-05
Topic: Foreign Trade
Abimbola Afolami (Conservative, Centre-right): I know that the Secretary of State cares a lot about services trade and the positive impact that that can have not just for Britain but across the world, and I welcome what she said in her statement about what is in this particular trade agreement. Will she set out in detail how she thinks this trade agreement is a step forward for services, particularly business and professional services, and commit to working with me and others outside the House over the next few weeks and months to strengthen our services offer in trade deals, not just this one per se but other deals that we are seeking to do in the coming months and years?
UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement — House of Commons, 2022-01-05
Topic: Foreign Trade
Anne-Marie Belinda Trevelyan (Conservative, Centre-right): Absolutely. Our services sectors are second only in the world. They are a fantastic part of our export market, and we want to make sure that we showcase them in all the trade deals we do and find the best tools and opportunities to share them across the world. This particular deal, as I set out in my statement, has a number of important mobility features to help provide certainty and longer continuity for those who want to move into these sectors. There is also a huge amount of opportunity through the £10 billion of Government procurement that is now available to UK businesses. This will continue to be a central part of every free trade deal that we look to arrange, and I am very happy to meet my hon. Friend to discuss it in more detail.
UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement — House of Commons, 2022-01-05
Topic: Foreign Trade
Anne-Marie Belinda Trevelyan (Conservative, Centre-right): Last year’s impact assessment was obviously a snapshot at the time. As the deal has continued to evolve from the agreement in principle back in June 2021, which was 12 pages of broad-brush direction of travel, the team has genuinely worked tirelessly. Working with a country in a different time zone, the team has worked through the night for many months to make sure that we drew this deal together. The continued development of all these areas has enabled us to review the original assessment. I am very happy for my officials to sit down with the hon. Lady to talk her through in more detail how we have reached this point. All these things are a moment in time, and we now have an assessment that I very much hope will be an underestimate as we see new business—we have been working on the basis of the existing businesses. We look to new businesses taking up the opportunities that this trade deal affords, so that we can grow our bilateral trade even further.
UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement — House of Commons, 2022-01-05
Topic: Foreign Trade
Martin John Vickers (Conservative, Centre-right): I welcome my right hon. Friend’s statement on this very encouraging agreement. She says that more than 15,000 companies already export to Australia and that she wants to encourage small family businesses to do so, too. I urge her to build on the excellent support that the Department gives to such businesses, as we need to encourage more businesses, particularly small businesses, into the export market. What will the Department do to enhance the existing service in that respect?
UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement — House of Commons, 2022-01-05
Topic: Foreign Trade
Anne-Marie Belinda Trevelyan (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my hon. Friend, who is an active and effective trade envoy to the Balkans. He raises an important point, and we have a great opportunity to help small businesses, which have fantastic goods and services, to take up the opportunities that these free trade deals will afford them and to find new export markets. The Minister for Exports, my hon. Friend the Member for Finchley and Golders Green (Mike Freer), has taken on that challenge with gusto With the export support service and a number of other tools, we are driving forward the opportunities that organisations such as the Federation of Small Businesses and the CBI provide to encourage businesses that have not yet tested the opportunity to export, so that we can share the amazing goods and services they produce with the rest of the world.
UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement — House of Commons, 2022-01-05
Topic: International Affairs
Anne-Marie Belinda Trevelyan (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his support and enthusiasm for this important deal with one of our closest allies and partners. Indeed, the AUKUS relationship is now developing and will be a very long-standing and close relationship, as we have had in many other ways. He raises an important point about local supply chains and the use of local goods, and I will make sure that that is passed on to my relevant colleagues.
UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement — House of Commons, 2022-01-05
Topic: Agriculture
Anne-Marie Belinda Trevelyan (Conservative, Centre-right): My right hon. Friend makes an extremely important point. He highlights the fact that we should be reassured that our farmers have fantastic products that we will all, as UK consumers, want to continue to eat, and that indeed our Australian partners are keen to sell their products into the Asia-Pacific market, where there is a growing demand. We will also want to take up those market opportunities. That is why we are working very hard and very closely with those in the CPTPP to get an accession to that free trade group, because there we will have the opportunity to sell our fantastic produce to those Asia-Pacific markets too.
UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement — House of Commons, 2022-01-05
Topic: Environment
Anne-Marie Belinda Trevelyan (Conservative, Centre-right): In this free trade agreement, the UK and Australia have committed to combat illegal logging and related trades, which, as the hon. Lady pointed out, is critical to the preservation of our natural environment and that critical biodiversity—an area that the UK has led on in the COP26 discussions led by Lord Goldsmith through the nature track in Glasgow. The environment chapter in this free trade agreement recognised the importance of sustainable forestry management, and it strengthens our relationship of co-operation and information sharing on a bilateral basis. We have also agreed provisions on promoting and co-operating on the transition towards a circular economy in reducing waste that goes beyond the CPTPP arrangements that Australia has with its neighbours, alongside working in further areas such as air quality and marine litter. There is a really important starting point for the work that we will do together with Australia to ensure that deforestation becomes a thing of the past.
UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement — House of Commons, 2022-01-05
Topic: Foreign Trade
Duncan Charles Baker (Conservative, Centre-right): We have had another fantastic trade deal that epitomises the cornerstone of one of the reasons people voted to leave the European Union, which was to set our own independent trade policy. We have heard a lot about agriculture but not a lot about young people, particularly professional young workers. Will my right hon. Friend explain the benefits of this deal for those young professional workers who will now have easier access to the wonderful lived experience of working down under?
UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement — House of Commons, 2022-01-05
Topic: Foreign Trade
Anne-Marie Belinda Trevelyan (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my hon. Friend for his enthusiasm and for highlighting again just how important this deal is. This is the first deal that we have negotiated from scratch as an independent trading nation. It is a broad and deep liberalising trade deal that affords, among other things, the opportunity for young Britons—anyone still under 35; sadly, that is not me—to travel and work in Australia for up to three years. Historically, to be able to get that, they had to have a commitment to work in an agricultural environment, but that will no longer be the case, so our young people will be able to go anywhere in Australia for up to three years to take their talent and get the opportunities afforded to them in any area that they want. That is a really exciting development that will continue to build on the close relationship that we want to maintain.
UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement — House of Commons, 2022-01-05
Topic: Agriculture
Anne-Marie Belinda Trevelyan (Conservative, Centre-right): I am thrilled that the hon. Gentleman is so pleased for those Scottish food and drink producers, who I absolutely agree will have great opportunities. They are very exciting new market opportunities that those producers will, I have no doubt, take up with gusto. Again, I reiterate that I am reassured by the safeguards we have brought in. The quota levels are built, but the existing quotas are not being used at all because the markets that Australia chooses to sell into at the moment—because the prices are better—are the Asia-Pacific ones, where there continues to be a growing middle class looking to have good-quality meat as part of their diet. I am looking forward to our ability to accede to the CPTPP, through which our farmers will also have opportunities to access those new markets.
UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement — House of Commons, 2022-01-05
Topic: Foreign Trade
Jonathan Simon Djanogly (Conservative, Centre-right): First, I welcome the Secretary of State’s very positive win-win attitude towards trade negotiations, as opposed to that of some others in this House. She mentioned visas, specifically for young people. Could she give the House a little bit more information about the projected numbers of workers likely to be going backwards and forwards, and the sectors they are likely to be involved with?
UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement — House of Commons, 2022-01-05
Topic: Agriculture
Anne-Marie Belinda Trevelyan (Conservative, Centre-right): I cannot speak for my colleagues in DEFRA, but I know that progress on the environmental land management schemes framework is developing at pace. That framework will be a really important tool to help our farmers make the right choices, not only about the food production that they choose to do, but about managing the environment that they are stewarding on our behalf as we move forward and—to the question of the hon. Member for Bristol East (Kerry McCarthy) earlier—make sure that we look after the biodiversity and the nature that surrounds us However, I disagree with the right hon. Gentleman that this deal is bad for his farmers, because there are great opportunities coming. As I mentioned earlier, the release of the lamb imports plan for the US is opening up a whole new series of markets, and as we continue to do more trade deals and with the opportunities in Asia-Pacific, our amazing farmers will have opportunities to move into new markets that they have not had before. However, as I will continue to say and as the right hon. Gentleman knows, there is nothing like eating local. Our farmers continue to advertise and very successfully sell their products to the British markets too, and I know that my colleagues in DEFRA work very closely with farming groups to help ensure that happens.
UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement — House of Commons, 2022-01-05
Topic: Foreign Trade
Andrew Richard Rosindell (Conservative, Centre-right): What a great way to start 2022. I commend not only the Secretary of State and her predecessor, but the Australian high commissioner, the hon. George Brandis, who has been so passionate about the relationship between the two nations, and strongly support all the work that has gone on to make today possible and have this fantastic trade deal become reality. Is it not fantastic that this deal has been achieved? We were told that it would take 10 years to do any trade deal, and this has been done in a matter of just over a year. Does the Secretary of State agree that this is a golden opportunity in this year of the Queen’s platinum jubilee also to extend more trade and more co-operation to the Commonwealth, and other realms and territories? Please let us not forget that trade is not just within the United Kingdom; we have territories and dependencies for which we are also responsible, so can we make that a priority in the coming years?
UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement — House of Commons, 2022-01-05
Topic: Foreign Trade
Anne-Marie Belinda Trevelyan (Conservative, Centre-right): I concur absolutely with my hon. Friend’s comments that the high commissioner, George Brandis, has been a huge advocate and supporter of the deal and indeed has assisted in some of the logistics challenges of carrying out, using mostly virtual methods, the very complex trade negotiations through different time zones to make sure that we were able to deliver this in an incredibly timely manner. That is reflected in the fact that both countries are very keen to build on their very close and long-standing relationships with what is one of the most liberalising trade deals that exists.
UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement — House of Commons, 2022-01-05
Topic: Agriculture
Anne-Marie Belinda Trevelyan (Conservative, Centre-right): I will direct all our farmers who have concerns to the level of the safeguards that I set out earlier, which should reassure them, and, importantly, to the continuing growth in new markets of the opportunities for them to sell our fantastic UK produce to the rest of the world. The standards are very clear and the animal welfare chapter has set out, in a way that Australia has never committed to in any other trade deal, that non-regression and working together is the way to move forward. We have not looked at anything in the poultry, pigs and eggs sector precisely because we did not believe that we could find a level of compatibility in standards, but we are comfortable with what the animal welfare chapter sets out and that it will help us all move forward. Really importantly, our fantastic producers—in the case of the hon. Gentleman and me they are our sheep farmers who make some of the finest lamb in the world—should be excited at the prospect not only of this free trade deal, but of all the free trade deals and, indeed, the release of the US import ban for them to find new markets.
UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement — House of Commons, 2022-01-05
Topic: Foreign Trade
Mark Julian Francis Pawsey (Conservative, Centre-right): The trade deal that the Secretary of State has announced is an excellent step to doing more business and increasing exports with Australia. It will be up to UK companies to take advantage of the new arrangements. Does she agree that, to do so, they will need first-class sales skills? Are we doing enough to improve those skills and get better at selling, and what advice, support, guidance and encouragement will there be to companies wishing to sell their products in Australia?
UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement — House of Commons, 2022-01-05
Topic: Foreign Trade
Anne-Marie Belinda Trevelyan (Conservative, Centre-right): As part of our export strategy, which we launched at the end of last year, we have a number of tools in the toolbox to help those businesses that are either already exporting or that want to discover new markets and learn how to move their products into new markets to do so. I look forward to all colleagues wanting to work with their businesses and our teams to maximise those opportunities.
UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement — House of Commons, 2022-01-05
Topic: Agriculture
Anne-Marie Belinda Trevelyan (Conservative, Centre-right): The Trade and Agriculture Commission is a group of independent experts who will review in detail the agricultural elements of the deal. I look forward to receiving its report, whence I will draw up my section 42 report and bring it to Parliament.
UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement — House of Commons, 2022-01-05
Topic: Foreign Trade
Greg Smith (Conservative, Centre-right): New free trade deals are incredibly important for securing the future prosperity of our country, and I congratulate my right hon. Friend and all involved on securing this one. Agriculture is enormously important in my constituency, and I know that farmers will be reassured by her clear statement that all imports from Australia will have to meet our existing food standards. Although she gave very low numbers of current imports from Australia, can she reassure the House that her Department will do everything humanly possible to bang the drum for British farmers to get more of our world-class produce to Australia?
UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement — House of Commons, 2022-01-05
Topic: Agriculture
Anne-Marie Belinda Trevelyan (Conservative, Centre-right): We want to see our fantastic British produce sold around the world, including to Australians. As I mentioned, our teams working in the UK and around the world are there to help our farmers and those who want to sell British produce into those markets.
UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement — House of Commons, 2022-01-05
Topic: Environment
Anne-Marie Belinda Trevelyan (Conservative, Centre-right): I am very proud that we have the environmental chapter in the free trade agreement, which sets out a mutual commitment to the Paris agreement. As I set out earlier, that was reiterated as meaning keeping 1.5° alive at COP26, where the Australians and we led the charge to ensure that we all work together to try to meet that challenge and maintain our climate.
UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement — House of Commons, 2022-01-05
Topic: Foreign Trade
Richard Michael John Ogilvie Graham (Conservative, Centre-right): The new free trade agreement is another step forward in our commitment to the Indo-Pacific region, and I congratulate the Secretary of State. What are the next steps in our application to join the CPTPP and what progress has been made on a new framework for Government-to-Government contracts which, as she knows, is a live issue at the moment for at least one deal in the region?
UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement — House of Commons, 2022-01-05
Topic: Foreign Trade
Anne-Marie Belinda Trevelyan (Conservative, Centre-right): The CPTPP process is in play. We put in our application last year and we are being vetted. I am not sure how best to describe it—it is a bit like passing a set of exam questions, and we have to submit our answers. We are in the final throes of that phase, which is good, and we hope to be able to move to market discussions in the very near future. In relation to my hon. Friend’s question about the new framework for Government-to-Government contracts, we are looking at those in detail at the moment and I will report back in due course.
UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement — House of Commons, 2022-01-05
Topic: Agriculture
Anne-Marie Belinda Trevelyan (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the hon. Gentleman for his continued support of farmers in his constituency. In the animal welfare chapter, we have agreed a non-regression clause and a number of co-operation matters on which we will work with the Australians. We are clear that our standards are non-negotiable and that food coming into the UK must meet our food standards and safety levels, and that will continue.
Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2022-01-05
Topic: Labor
Richard Michael John Ogilvie Graham (Conservative, Centre-right): The Minister will know that some of us have received correspondence from constituents suggesting, probably on the advice of their unions, that they will lose up to £500 a year when pensioned as a result of these changes. Can he confirm whether this is true? If it is not, what method can we deploy to reassure our constituents accordingly?
Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2022-01-05
Topic: Labor
Robert James MacGillivray Neill (Conservative, Centre-right): I entirely support what the Minister says about judicial pensions reform, but, since he wears another hat in his capacity as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, may I raise a further issue that is sometimes an impediment to recruitment, namely the operation of the lifetime cap on pensions earnings? In particular, many who have earned well at the Bar and who might otherwise seek appointment to the High Court bench still encounter a disincentive because of the operation of the overall lifetime cap. At one point a carve-out was arranged to reflect that. Although this does not feature in the Bill, may I ask the Minister to take it away and perhaps speak to the Chancellor about it? It is the final bit of the jigsaw that could be sensibly introduced to encourage the very best people to seek appointment to the bench.
Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2022-01-05
Topic: Law and Crime
Simon Richard Clarke (Conservative, Centre-right): As Chair of the Justice Committee, my hon. Friend brings a huge amount of expertise to bear on this issue. I can make an absolute commitment that we will look at this, and I will always discuss plausible options to ensure that the judicial pension scheme supports recruitment rather than being in any way an impediment to it. That is very important, and it underpins our wider work on the new scheme for the judiciary. It will move from being tax-registered to being tax-unregistered, and a variety of consequential benefits will arise from that.