The Trade Act 2021 (c. 10) is an
Act of the
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...
to make provision about the implementation of
international trade agreements. It was introduced to the House of Commons on 19 March 2020 by the
Secretary of State for International Trade
The secretary of state for international trade, also referred to as the international trade secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for the business of the Department for Interna ...
Liz Truss
Mary Elizabeth Truss (born 26 July 1975) is a British politician who briefly served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from September to October 2022. On her fiftieth day in office, she stepped down ...
, and introduced to the House of Lords on 21 July 2020 by
Lord Grimstone of Boscobel.
It received
royal assent
Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in oth ...
on 29 April 2021.
Summary and purpose
An earlier "Trade Bill" anticipating
UK withdrawal from the European Union was introduced in the
UK Parliament
The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...
2017-2019
Parliamentary session
A legislative session is the period of time in which a legislature, in both parliamentary and presidential systems, is convened for purpose of lawmaking, usually being one of two or more smaller divisions of the entire time between two elections ...
(7 November 2017), intended make to provision for "the implementation of
international trade agreements; to make provision establishing the Trade Remedies Authority and conferring functions on it; and to make provision about the collection and disclosure of information relating to trade". The bill failed to complete its passage through Parliament before the end of the session and therefore failed.
[UK Parliament]
Trade Bill 2017-19
accessed 23 November 2019
The 2021 Act was promised in the
2019 Conservative party manifesto
Nineteen or 19 may refer to:
* 19 (number), the natural number following 18 and preceding 20
* one of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019
Films
* ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film
* ''Nineteen'' (film), a 1987 science fiction film
Music ...
.
The Act was designed (like the previous bill) "to make provision about the implementation of
international trade agreements; to make provision establishing the
Trade Remedies Authority and conferring functions on it; and to make provision about the collection and disclosure of information relating to trade."
According to Christopher Hope, the Act was designed to "enshrine in law the framework to allow the UK to sign deals with other countries. It ould Ould is an English surname and an Arabic name ( ar, ولد). In some Arabic dialects, particularly Hassaniya Arabic, ولد (the patronymic, meaning "son of") is transliterated as Ould. Most Mauritanians have patronymic surnames.
Notable p ...
also allow the Government to roll over billions of pounds of existing trade deals that the EU already has with third countries."[
]
Amendments
In the Commons
At third reading
The Bill, as yet in bill form, was read for the third time on 20 July 2020. Four amendments were negatived on this day:[Text was copied from this source, which is available under th]
Open Parliament Licence v3.0
© UK Parliament.[ Text was copied from this source, which is available under th]
Open Parliament Licence v3.0
© UK Parliament. MP Neil Parish, who chairs the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee
The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The remit of the Committee is to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the Department fo ...
, was somewhat confused that "ministers would not accept the (Djanogly) amendment as the scrutiny would ensure they follow through on commitments" to animal health and welfare, protection of the environment, and food safety and hygiene.[
]
In the Lords
The Purvis amendment
On 7 December 2020, Lord Purvis of Tweed proposed Amendment 6 "for greater accountability and transparency of deals... and (for) negotiating objectives (to) be put before Parliament and approved by both Houses before talks on potential trade agreements start." The Purvis amendment was passed 308 "content" to 261 "not content".
The McIntosh amendment
Also on 7 December 2020, Baroness McIntosh of Pickering
Anne Caroline Ballingall McIntosh, Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (born 20 September 1954) is a British politician who has been a life peer since 2015.
A member of the Conservative Party, McIntosh represented the Thirsk and Malton constituen ...
proposed Amendment 7, to establish the permanent "Trade and Agriculture Commission" (as distinct from the temporary Agriculture and Trade Commission
The Trade and Agriculture Commission (TAC) was created to advise the UK Department of International Trade (now the Department for Business and Trade) on matters of agricultural standards to ensure that the UK agriculture sector remains competitive ...
) which would have established the eponymous body corporate, to maintain "standards equivalent to standards applied within the United Kingdom at the time of import for goods imported under a trade agreement between the United Kingdom and any other state." When she pressed her amendment in the face of opposition from Grimstone, it was "disagreed" with no recorded vote.[
]
The Collins amendment
On 7 December 2020, Lord Collins of Highbury
Ray Edward Harry Collins, Baron Collins of Highbury (born 21 December 1954) is a British politician and trade unionist serving as a Member of the House of Lords since 2011. A member of the Labour Party, he has been Shadow Deputy Leader of the ...
proposed Amendment 8 for "determination on compliance with international obligations and state actions". The Collins amendment passed with 297 "contents" and 221 "not contents".[
]
The Alton amendment
In September 2020, the former Conservative Party leader (now) Sir Iain Duncan Smith
Sir George Iain Duncan Smith (born George Ian Duncan Smith; 9 April 1954), often referred to by his initials IDS, is a British politician who served as Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from 2001 to 2003. He was ...
(IDS), who is "convinced that the Chinese government was ' performing the systematic eradication of the Uighur people'", said that the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China
The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) is an international, cross-party alliance of parliamentarians from democratic countries focused on relations with the People's Republic of China (PRC), and specifically, the Chinese Communist Party ...
had "proposed an amendment to the trade bill which states that if it is deemed that a country is practicing genocide then the trade arrangements with that country should not stand".
In a January 2021 '' Daily Telegraph'' op-ed IDS, who was especially outraged at the "organised brutality of the Chinese Communist Party
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil ...
", congratulated the House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...
on its amendment (proposed by Lord Alton
David Patrick Paul Alton, Baron Alton of Liverpool, (born 15 March 1951) is a British politician.
He is a former Liberal Party and later Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament who has sat as a crossbench member of the House of Lords since 1997 ...
and supported by "a cross-party group of peers that include the former Conservative cabinet minister Michael Forsyth, former Conservative chief whip Lord Blencathra, former Conservative party chairman Eric Pickles
Eric Jack Pickles, Baron Pickles, (born 20 April 1952) is a British Conservative Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Brentwood and Ongar from 1992 to 2017. He served in David Cameron's Cabinet as Secretary of State for ...
and other Conservatives, alongside Labour peers and numerous others, including the former Supreme Court Justice Lord Hope") to the Trade Bill that "would require that the UK does not trade with genocidal regimes. Importantly, with the United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...
having shown itself incapable of making such decisions, the determination of whether genocide has taken place would be made by the High Court of England and Wales
The High Court of Justice in London, known properly as His Majesty's High Court of Justice in England, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, are the Senior Courts of England and Wales. Its name is abbreviated as EWHC (England ...
."
In a November 2020 article, Juliet Samuel explained that the UK "government does not (currently) make judgments on whether genocides are happening or not. Instead, we outsource that judgment to the UN and declare it's all a legal matter for the International Criminal Court
The International Criminal Court (ICC or ICCt) is an intergovernmental organization and international tribunal seated in The Hague, Netherlands. It is the first and only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute individuals f ...
. Of course, referring a case to the ICC requires a UN Security Council
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the Organs of the United Nations, six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international security, international peace and security, recommending the admi ...
resolution, so any state with a veto, like Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
or China, can scotch that. In effect, UK policy amounts to ignoring the issue. This amendment would instead hand jurisdiction to our judges."
The Thornton amendment
Amendment 11 was proposed on 7 December 2021 by Baroness Thornton regarding "International trade agreements: health, care or publicly funded data processing services and IT systems in connection with the provision of health and care". It passed by 232 "contents" to 143 "not contents".[
]
The Kidron amendment
According to a ''Daily Telegraph'' journalist in a piece concerning Section 230
Section 230 is a section of Title 47 of the United States Code that was enacted as part of the United States Communications Decency Act and generally provides immunity for website platforms with respect to third-party content. At its core, Sect ...
of the Communications Decency Act, the Government on 12 January 2021 "suffered a defeat in the House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...
over an amendment to the trade bill, introduced by Baroness Kidron, preventing UK negotiators from signing up to treaty provisions giving protections to US tech giants. The amendment still needs to be passed by the Commons to become binding."
Commons: Result of the Lords amendments
On 19 January 2021, the speaker reminded the Commons that the bill was a matter of confidence, and then government, which had chosen to oppose all Lords amendments, narrowly averted a loss over the Alton amendment on genocide by the margin 319 to 308. Notable rebels were Duncan Smith, David Davis, Damian Green
Damian Howard Green (born 17 January 1956) is a British politician who served as First Secretary of State and Minister for the Cabinet Office from June to December 2017 in the Second May government. A member of the Conservative Party, he has b ...
, Tom Tugendhat
Thomas Georg John Tugendhat, (born 27 June 1973) is a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he has served as Minister of State for Security since September 2022. He previously served as Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Comm ...
, Tobias Ellwood
Tobias Martin Ellwood (born 12 August 1966) is a British Conservative Party politician and soldier who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bournemouth East since 2005. He has chaired the Defence Select Committee since 2020 and was a Go ...
, Caroline Nokes, Tracey Crouch
Tracey Elizabeth Anne Crouch (born 24 July 1975) is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Chatham and Aylesford since 2010. A member of the Conservative Party, she gained the seat from Labour's Jonathan S ...
, Jonathan Djanogly
Jonathan Simon Djanogly (born 3 June 1965) is an English politician, solicitor and Conservative Party Member of Parliament (MP) for Huntingdon since 2001. Djanogly has been Trade and Industry Spokesman shadowing the Department for Business, En ...
and Nus Ghani. In all, 33 Conservative members rebelled. Jeremy Hunt
Jeremy Richard Streynsham Hunt (born 1 November 1966) is a British politician who has served as Chancellor of the Exchequer since 14 October 2022. He previously served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport ...
abstained. Trade Minister Greg Hands
Gregory William Hands (born 14 November 1965) is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Chelsea and Fulham, previously Hammersmith and Fulham, since 2005. A member of the Conservative Party, he has served as ...
remarked that it was "unprecedented and unacceptable to give the courts powers to revoke trade deals agreed by elected governments". Duncan Smith proposed an amendment "which would give the Commons the right to debate whether trade deals can be halted if genocide is proven" but was unable to force a vote on it.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews was interested in the matter and said that "we will continue to campaign energetically for justice for the Uyghurs and will be supporting the revised (Duncan Smith) amendment to be tabled in the House of Lords. The Uyghurs will have their day in court." A ''Jewish News
The ''Jewish News'' is a free weekly newspaper, established in 1997, that serves the Jewish communities of Greater London – specifically Middlesex, Hertfordshire and Essex. In 2002, it won the ''Press Gazette'' free newspaper of the year.
In F ...
'' campaign was mounted "urging MPs to back the amendment", with a "special front page editorial printed this week", calling on them to "Stop Uyghur Genocide". Ghani wrote: "Clear message from @HouseofCommons that we will not be bystanders to genocide", while Ellwood complained that "I should not have to rebel against my own Government to support the international moral high ground."
Lords amendments
On 3 February the legislative ping-pong was well and truly joined and in the House of Lords government suffered defeat on three new amendments:
* Lord Lansley
Andrew David Lansley, Baron Lansley, (born 11 December 1956) is a British Conservative politician who previously served as Secretary of State for Health and Leader of the House of Commons. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for South Cambridgeshi ...
"would give Parliament the opportunity to set negotiating terms for trade deals."
* Lord Collins "would compel ministers to report on human rights before trade deals are considered."
* In Lord Alton
David Patrick Paul Alton, Baron Alton of Liverpool, (born 15 March 1951) is a British politician.
He is a former Liberal Party and later Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament who has sat as a crossbench member of the House of Lords since 1997 ...
's text, "the High Court would be given the right to make a preliminary judgement on genocide and ministers would then be obliged to have a debate in Parliament if such human rights abuses were found to have occurred."
Commentary
'' Daily Telegraph'' economics editor Jeremy Warner opined on 19 January 2021 that "Pressure groups cannot dictate our relationship with China", while the editorial board remarked on the same day on the same topic that "It was only five years ago that ( Chancellor of the Exchequer) George Osborne
George Gideon Oliver Osborne (born Gideon Oliver Osborne; 23 May 1971) is a former British politician and newspaper editor who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2010 to 2016 and as First Secretary of State from 2015 to 2016 in the ...
proclaimed a golden era of Sino-UK relations, describing this country as Beijing's 'best partner in the West'. Given the crushing of democracy in Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...
, China's failure to be transparent about the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
, and its increasingly bellicose posturing against Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
, such optimism now looks hopelessly naive."
On the same date which was noted as a Commons vote on the Trade Bill, MP and Chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee
The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The remit of the Committee is to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the Department fo ...
Neil Parish argued in an op-ed that "Our sovereign Parliament should have a central role" by "empowering British MPs to scrutinise trade agreements" to "bring us into line with other independent trading nations which share our values." Further, "the best trade deals are those which carry democratic support and are developed in partnership with MPs, who are able to represent the concerns of their constituents, including brilliant local businesses." Indeed, Parish remarked that "I am keen to ensure that new trade deals protect British food standards and the interests of British producers and consumers."
An editorial written on 3 February 2021 in the ''Daily Telegraph'' said government "risks a bigger Tory backbench rebellion when the amendment comes back to the Commons" and pointed out that immediate targets of this legislation would include not only China but also Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
"which is presumably not what its supporters have in mind."
References
{{reflist
International trade
Foreign relations of the United Kingdom
Economy of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 2021
Agreement on Government Procurement
2021 in British law
2021 in British politics