Trade Agreements: Australia and New Zealand
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether his Department has plans to make an assessment of the potential impact of the UK's free trade agreements with (a) Australia and (b) New Zealand on Welsh agriculture.
Answered by Mr Douglas Alexander
The UK Government assessed the environmental impacts of the UK-Australia FTA and the UK-New Zealand FTA within the independently scrutinised impact assessments which were published in December 2021 and February 2022 respectively when the FTAs were signed. These covered both the economic and environmental impacts.
In addition, the independent Trade Agriculture Commission gave both the UK-Australia FTA and the UK-New Zealand FTA a clean bill of health, concluding both FTAs are consistent with the maintenance of UK statutory protections in relation to animal or plant life or health, animal welfare and environmental protection.
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