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Brexit Legislation: Trade Bill

on Thursday, 21 December 2017.

The government has recently published the Trade Bill which aims to preserve the UK's trade policy once it leaves the EU and ensure that the UK is able to continue trading with its trading partners on similar terms.

In the Queen's Speech earlier this year, it was announced that in addition to the Great Repeal Bill, there would also be a number of other supplementary pieces of legislation to prepare the UK for its exit from the EU. One of these is the Trade Bill which was published on 7 November 2017.

The purpose of the Trade Bill is to ensure that the UK has the necessary legal powers to allow the it to operate its own trade policy on its departure from the EU.

What is the scope of the Bill?

The main provisions of the Bill include powers for the following:

  • Implementation of the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA): Part 1 provides powers to help ensure that the UK is able to remain part of the World Trade Organisation's GPA.  The fundamental aim of the GPA is to safeguard fair and transparent conditions in government procurement across WTO members. The UK is currently a member of the WTO by virtue of its EU membership.  Remaining part of the GPA will mean that UK businesses will continue to have access to procurement opportunities in other countries which have implemented the GPA.

  • Implementation of international trade agreements:  Part 2 sets out the UK's ability to implement regulations for the purposes of maintaining the international trade agreements to which it is already committed as an EU member. The aim is for the UK to continue these trade agreements with each country on corresponding terms which will provide certainty and stability to the UK's businesses and consumers.  Of course, this just sets out the regulatory framework from the UK side of the fence - the basis on which the UK continues to access trade deals will very much depend on the position of the counterparties to those trade agreements.   

  • Trade remedies framework: the Bill provides for a new independent body, known as the Trade Remedies Authority, to be established in order to protect UK  businesses against harmful and unfair trade practices. This role is currently undertaken by the European Commission. The exact function of the Trade Remedies Authority, and the basis on which it will be able to provide the protection that it is intended to provide, will be set out in a separate bill.

  • The collection and disclosure of information by HMRC: the Bill establishes powers for HMRC to collect data relating to persons exporting goods and services from the UK. HMRC may also disclose data for the purposes of allowing the government or other body, including international organisations, to exercise their public functions relating to trade.

Although this Bill gives the necessary powers to enable the UK to continue trading on the same terms as it is now, this is by no means guaranteed. It is likely that the UK will have to renegotiate many of its international trade agreements with third party countries and this may result in amendments to the terms that are currently in place.

The Trade Bill implements many of the proposals from the Government's white paper, published in October, on 'Preparing for our future UK trade policy'. 
However, there is inevitably still a lot more to be done to ensure the transition out of the EU remains as smooth as possible for UK businesses.

The government also intends to publish a Customs Bill shortly which will complement the Trade Bill and allow the UK to set customs duties and tariff rate quotas - we will include a briefing on that in a future edition of the Decision Makers' Brief.


For more information on the Trade Bill or Brexit and how you can help to protect your business, please contact Ed Rimmell in our Commercial Law team on 0117 314 5232.

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