argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Free Trade Agreements: Environmental Protection Standards — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: Agriculture
Elizabeth Mary Truss (Conservative, Centre-right): The reason they were not part of the Agriculture Bill is that the import standards that we already have and which already ensure that we import only high-quality products into this country are being transported into UK law through the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. That is already there. There has been a lot of scaremongering going around about these lowered standards. That is simply not true. We are maintaining exactly the standards we have, which are in place, for example, through agreements with Canada.
Free Trade Agreements: Environmental Protection Standards — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: Foreign Trade
Elizabeth Mary Truss (Conservative, Centre-right): First of all, I am extremely happy to appear in front of the hon. Gentleman’s Committee, and I will ask my office to immediately set that up in the diary. I am very keen to communicate with the Committee about the various trade deals we are negotiating We published figures for the scoping study on the Japan free trade agreement, but this is not an either/or. We want to get a good trade deal with the EU. We want to get a good trade deal with the US. We also want to get access to CPTPP, which is a very fast-growing part of the world. That is what we want. We want global Britain to sit at the heart of a network of free trade agreements.
Free Trade Agreements: Environmental Protection Standards — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: Environment
Elizabeth Mary Truss (Conservative, Centre-right): We have a huge opportunity to achieve our environmental objectives in many of the free trade agreements we are negotiating. For example, with New Zealand, which is a leader in this area, we will be looking for very advanced environmental clauses, and of course we will seek those in negotiations with Japan. But the hon. Gentleman should understand that there are a number of routes through which we are pursuing our objectives, namely our leadership of the COP26 summit, and it is right that that process should be the primary focus of where we achieve our climate change objectives.
Free Trade Agreements: Effect on Cornwall — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: Foreign Trade
Ranil Malcolm Jayawardena (Conservative, Centre-right): I know that my hon. Friend is a great champion of business in his constituency, including the dairy industry. I can assure him that every region and nation will benefit from our trade deals, and that includes every industry from farming to FinTech to boot. In the south-west, exports of dairy amounted to more than £46.7 million last year and these businesses stand to benefit even further from the removal of US tariffs.
Free Trade Agreements: Effect on Cornwall — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: Foreign Trade
Stephen Daniel Double (Conservative, Centre-right): I am delighted to see my hon. Friend in his ministerial position Whether it is our excellent butter, cheese and cream, our amazing beef and lamb, our stunning fish and seafood, or our beer, wine and gin, Cornish food and drink are among the highest quality and most sought after in the world. The Minister will be aware that food producers are concerned that our high standards will be undermined in trade deals, so what reassurance can he provide to Cornish food producers that their interests will be protected, and what opportunities does he see for export?
Free Trade Agreements: Effect on Cornwall — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: Foreign Trade
Ranil Malcolm Jayawardena (Conservative, Centre-right): Who wouldn’t be, Mr Speaker Like my hon. Friend, I am also proud of the high-quality produce from British farmers, including from those in Cornwall, and I can assure him that trade deals will help deliver economic security for Britain and protect us all from new trade barriers and tariffs that could harm jobs and industry. I can assure him that Cornish food producers will be supported at every turn and will continue to be highly competitive. Negotiations will certainly reward them through providing access to new markets.
Covid-19: Import of Essential Medical Products — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: Transportation
Gregory William Hands (Conservative, Centre-right): I have to say, Mr Speaker, that I was woken at 4.40 this morning by a passenger flight coming into Heathrow and then by another one at 4.45 am. It strikes me that although passenger traffic coming into the country is much reduced, it is still very much facilitated. I am not aware that any disruption that may be caused by the quarantine regulations is having any direct impact on our ability to import vital PPE into the country.
Covid-19: Import of Essential Medical Products — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: Foreign Trade
Gregory William Hands (Conservative, Centre-right): Mr Speaker, you will know that on 20 March, which was the start of the UK lockdown, the EU Commission wrote to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and HM Treasury alerting them to the existence of the potential mechanism by which tariffs in VAT could be waived on certain imports in the light of the covid-19 crisis. We have identified more than190 products that are in scope, ranging from PPE to soaps and disinfectants. When these products are imported by an organisation covered by the relief, the tariff will be zero.
Promoting UK Agriculture Exports — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: Foreign Trade
Graham Charles Stuart (Conservative, Centre-right): Our food and drink sector is vital to our economy. In 2019, exports increased by nearly 5% to £23.7 billion. We want to see that success continue and will shortly be launching a bounce back strategy for the industry as the world recovers from covid-19.
Promoting UK Agriculture Exports — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: Agriculture
Peter James Guy Aldous (Conservative, Centre-right): I am grateful for that answer. I draw your attention, Mr Speaker, to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. There are significant opportunities to increase agricultural exports, but for the UK to make the most of them, there is a need to dramatically increase food and drink processing capacity. What discussions has my hon. Friend’s Department had with the Treasury, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, so as to ensure that the right fiscal and grant arrangements are in place?
Promoting UK Agriculture Exports — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: Agriculture
Graham Charles Stuart (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is right to raise that important issue. My Department is working closely with DEFRA, BEIS and Her Majesty’s Treasury to understand the market and investment trends in the agriculture and food processing sector in a post-covid environment. The Department for International Trade’s high potential opportunity—HPO—programme, which is part of our levelling-up agenda, is already attracting investment in food and drink programmes throughout the UK. For instance, there is agricultural engineering in Telford and aquaculture in Dorset. However, we want to do more, which is why, in partnership across Government and as part of our forthcoming export strategy, we will work to identify new investment opportunities in the sector and its supply chain, so that UK agriculture’s full potential can be realised internationally.
UK Tech Sector — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: Technology
Graham Charles Stuart (Conservative, Centre-right): I know that my hon. Friend is, like me, proud that the UK tech sector is the dominant and most successful in Europe. With 79 unicorns and counting, last year the sector attracted a third of all European tech investment—more than France and Germany combined. That success has continued this year, and just last week the Secretary of State launched a new tech strategy to support the internationalisation of our firms, including a digital trade network across the Asia Pacific.
Free Trade Agreements: Effect on Blyth Valley — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: Foreign Trade
Graham Charles Stuart (Conservative, Centre-right): In 2018, Northumberland and Tyne and Wear exported goods worth £496 million to the US, £130 million to Japan, £24 million to New Zealand and £216 million to Australia. Against a backdrop of rising trade barriers, our FTAs will secure and protect existing trade, and, according to our analysis, FTAs with the US, Japan, Australia and New Zealand will go further and bring additional export opportunities to every part of the country, including Blyth Valley.
Free Trade Agreements: Effect on Blyth Valley — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: Foreign Trade
Ian Levy (Conservative, Centre-right): In Blyth Valley we have many successful companies that trade globally. As we move closer to the deadline of 31 December 2020, will my hon. Friend please advise the House as to what steps the Department has taken to help companies such as Dräger Safety and Tharsus in Blyth, and Miller engineering and Renolit in Cramlington—to name just a few—so that they can take advantage of free trade agreements?
Free Trade Agreements: Effect on Blyth Valley — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: Foreign Trade
Graham Charles Stuart (Conservative, Centre-right): My team is developing a new export strategy, which will align DIT support for exporting businesses, such as the ones my hon. Friend mentions, with our FTA and market access work. In February, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State visited Tharsus and Port of Blyth, and they emphasised to her how important data and digital chapters were for them. Blyth Valley companies will be supported by ambitious FTAs, an enhanced network of international trade advisers in the northern powerhouse, and teams in 108 countries around the world.
Free Trade Agreements: UK Farming Exports — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: Foreign Trade
Elizabeth Mary Truss (Conservative, Centre-right): We are determined to remove barriers so that more of our fantastic British produce can be sold internationally. We have now become a net dairy exporter for the first time in recent years. A US-UK FTA can reduce tariffs of, for example, 26% on beef and more than 25% on some dairy products.
Free Trade Agreements: UK Farming Exports — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: Agriculture
Luke Morgan Evans (Conservative, Centre-right): Some of my constituents in Bosworth have written to me concerned about food standards. What discussions is my right hon. Friend having with DEFRA regarding the Food Standards Agency to guarantee that the agency is fully supported to ensure and enforce that our food standards are up to scratch in our new trade deals as they come to fruition?
Free Trade Agreements: UK Farming Exports — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: Agriculture
Elizabeth Mary Truss (Conservative, Centre-right): It is very important to note that we are not going to be lowering our food standards in any of our trade negotiations. British food standards—or certainly those in England and Wales—are a matter for the Food Standards Agency, and it is down to the agency to ensure that standards are upheld. Those standards are also in UK law, transferred as part of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, so they are guaranteed, and the Food Standards Agency is an independent body designed to ensure that they are upheld.
Free Trade Agreements: Benefits for All Parts of the UK — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: Foreign Trade
Graham Charles Stuart (Conservative, Centre-right): When the UK left the EU, we had successfully signed trade continuity agreements with 48 countries, accounting for £110 billion of UK trade in 2018. Now we are seeking new trade agreements so that UK trade is diversified and better aligned with global growth. Analysis shows that the US deal, for instance, will benefit all parts of the United Kingdom, although Scotland and the midlands will gain most. That US deal could reduce tariffs and non-tariff barriers for everything from Scottish cashmere to automotive manufacturing in the midlands, machinery manufacturing in the north-west and our world-class services sector in the south-east, the midlands, Northern Ireland and elsewhere.
Free Trade Agreements: Benefits for All Parts of the UK — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: Foreign Trade
Graham Charles Stuart (Conservative, Centre-right): The Humber ports contribute so much to the UK economy, providing a critical trade route into Europe and beyond. Like my hon. Friend, I am proud that the Humber is one of the busiest and fastest growing trading areas in Europe, is responsible for a quarter of the UK’s seaborne trade and hosts 30,000 international shipping movements each year, yet it can do so much more; and, with the help and support of my hon. Friend, it will do so. I cannot comment on any individual free port bids, but I encourage anybody who wants their views taken into account to respond to the Government’s consultation before it closes on 13 July.
Free Trade Agreements: Benefits for All Parts of the UK — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: Foreign Trade
Neil Peter Hammerton Hudson (Conservative, Centre-right): Does my hon. Friend agree that trade options such as free port status will add a major boost to our local economies, and that free port bids, such as the one involving Carlisle Lake District airport in my constituency of Penrith and The Border, warrant serious further consideration?
Free Trade Agreements: Benefits for All Parts of the UK — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: Transportation
Graham Charles Stuart (Conservative, Centre-right): As I have said, I cannot comment on individual free port bids, but as I am someone who was born and brought up in Carlisle, my hon. Friend can certainly expect support and sympathy in this part of the Government.
Free Trade Agreements: Effect on the East Midlands — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: Foreign Trade
Ranil Malcolm Jayawardena (Conservative, Centre-right): This is an important question. Free trade agreements will certainly help Britain to bounce back from coronavirus, and will bring better jobs, higher wages, greater choice and lower prices to consumers and businesses across the country. That means that in the east midlands lower tariffs and barriers will help to diversify the supply chain and reduce reliance on any single country for businesses that seek to thrive in the new global trading network which we are going to be at the heart of.
Free Trade Agreements: Effect on the East Midlands — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: Foreign Trade
Thomas William Randall (Conservative, Centre-right): I am particularly pleased that we are now finally able to open direct negotiations with some of our oldest and closest allies. Will my hon. Friend tell me what steps the Government are taking to support businesses in the east midlands to make the most of the new opportunities created by these future trade agreements?
Free Trade Agreements: Effect on the East Midlands — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: Foreign Trade
Ranil Malcolm Jayawardena (Conservative, Centre-right): As a newly independent trading nation, we will be able to champion free trade, fight protectionism and remove barriers at every opportunity. That includes tariffs. We will be trading on British terms with our new global tariff, which will cut red tape and cut costs for consumers and businesses in Gedling and in the region. My Department and our experienced international trade advisers will continue to support companies across the east midlands access exporting opportunities, and to provide export credit and insurance through UK Export Finance.
Free Trade Agreements: US and Japan — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: Foreign Trade
Elizabeth Mary Truss (Conservative, Centre-right): We have launched negotiations with both the US and Japan. We want to secure ambitious trade deals that benefit every part of the United Kingdom. Scotland is expected to be a particularly strong beneficiary from those deals.
Free Trade Agreements: US and Japan — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: Agriculture
Elizabeth Mary Truss (Conservative, Centre-right): I would point out that Scotland has its own food standards agency, which is responsible for upholding food standards in Scotland. I would also point out that the standards already are in the law and will continue to be in the law.
Free Trade Agreements: Freedom of Religion or Belief — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: International Affairs
Atta-Ur-Rehman Chishti (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the Minister for that answer. He knows that I lead for the Government on freedom of religion or belief as the Prime Minister’s special envoy and on taking forward the Truro report. The Minister also knows, from our previous work when I was a trade envoy covering Pakistan, that there was a GSP plus—generalised system of preference—trade clause which meant that human rights had to be respected. Around the world at the moment under covid-19, religious minorities have suffered immensely. Can we ensure that our future discussions on trade cover fully and frankly our concerns on freedom of religion or belief and wider human rights?
Free Trade Agreements: Freedom of Religion or Belief — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: International Affairs
Gregory William Hands (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend has done superb work as the Prime Minister’s special envoy on freedom of religion and belief. He references the Truro report, which was set up by the previous Foreign Secretary. Its overall approach is very much endorsed by this Government. He also draws reference to his time as the Prime Minister’s trade envoy to Pakistan, when I worked with him very closely. The GSP plus scheme will be rolled over into a UK scheme. Obviously, that will include key human rights obligations, including freedom of religion and expression.
UK-US Free Trade Agreement — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: Foreign Trade
Elizabeth Mary Truss (Conservative, Centre-right): We have just commenced round 2 of trade negotiations with the United States. Talks so far have been positive and constructive, but I am absolutely clear that we will only sign up for a deal that benefits all parts of the UK and all sectors of the UK.
UK-US Free Trade Agreement — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: International Affairs
Elizabeth Mary Truss (Conservative, Centre-right): Let me be absolutely clear that we have not set a timetable for completion of the negotiations with the United States, because we are concentrating on getting a good deal rather than meeting any particular negotiation timetable. I am afraid that the hon. Lady is absolutely wrong with respect to the EU, because we have been clear that we are not aligned with EU regulations. We have our own independent regulatory regime and we are negotiating with all our trading partners, whether it is the US, Australia, New Zealand or Japan, on that basis.
Support for Small Businesses and the Self-Employed — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: Foreign Trade
Graham Charles Stuart (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right about the importance of SMEs. They need Government support to enter international markets, and that is why the DIT exists. We are not responsible for negotiation with the EU, but we are confident that we will reach a good deal with it. The Department is putting SME chapters in our trade deals with other countries. It is a pity that the Labour party opposes every trade agreement and continually shows its indifference to small business and enterprise, but I am looking to the hon. Gentleman, as he may be able to do what no others have done and lead the shadow Secretary of State away from being an enemy of business and towards supporting it, as he does.
Free Trade Agreements: UK Car Manufacturers — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: Transportation
Graham Charles Stuart (Conservative, Centre-right): The automotive industry will see more change in the next 10 years than it is seen in the past 100. That is why we are investing so heavily in research and development to ensure that the UK industry can be a global leader in clean transport. Lowering trade barriers is an essential step in attracting further investment and allowing the industry to thrive at a time of unprecedented change.
Free Trade Agreements: UK Car Manufacturers — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: Foreign Trade
Stephen James Metcalfe (Conservative, Centre-right): The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders and the Japanese Automobile Manufacturers Association say that a UK-Japan agreement would greatly benefit economic prosperity in the UK and Japan. What opportunities for the sector does the Minister see in future FTAs that would help businesses such as Ford UK, based in Basildon?
Free Trade Agreements: UK Car Manufacturers — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: Foreign Trade
Graham Charles Stuart (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend and the SMMT are both right. Turkey—as well as Japan—is important, not least to Ford. We prize our trading relationship with Turkey and recognise how important Turkish supply chains are to our automotive manufacturers, including Ford of Britain. I am pleased to say that UK and Turkish officials are working hard to ensure that trading arrangements transition into a bilateral agreement at the end of the implementation period, and I thank my hon. Friend for highlighting, unlike the right hon. Member for Islington South and Finsbury (Emily Thornberry), issues that will help prosperity, jobs and businesses in this country instead of posturing and posing for the benefit of the hard left.
UK Exports of Arms and Equipment — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: International Affairs
Ranil Malcolm Jayawardena (Conservative, Centre-right): Not at all. The United Kingdom has issued licences to the United States in a number of different areas, and those have been provided in written answers to the shadow Secretary of State, but we continue to monitor developments in all countries, including the United States, very closely, and we are able to review licences, and suspend or revoke them as necessary, when circumstances require. That would be done in line with the consolidated criteria.
UK Exports of Arms and Equipment — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: International Affairs
Ranil Malcolm Jayawardena (Conservative, Centre-right): I refer the hon. Lady to the answer that I have just given. We will continue to monitor developments closely. We will review where necessary. On the technical points that she refers to, I welcome her probing question. We believe that criterion 2 is very important. It addresses the respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in the country of final destination, and that is something that Her Majesty’s Government will certainly bear in mind as we review situations in the United States or elsewhere.
Free Trade Agreements: Human Rights — House of Commons, 2020-06-18
Topic: International Affairs
Gregory William Hands (Conservative, Centre-right): The UK has commenced trade negotiations with the United States, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. The UK has a strong history of safeguarding human rights and promoting our values globally, and our strong economic relationships with like-minded trading partners allow the UK to open discussions on a range of difficult issues, including human rights. We continue to encourage all states to uphold international human rights obligations.