Liz Truss defends UK’s ‘robust’ scrutiny procedures for new trade deals

Ms Truss set out the process after the Government’s Food Strategy lead, Henry Dimbleby, and NFU president Minette Batters, criticised Ministers for clinging to an outdated process ‘more suitable for the 19th century than the 21st’.

Speaking during a ConservativeHome fringe event at the virtual Tory Party conference this week (October 4), Ms Truss batted away suggestions that her Government would leave the UK with the weakest trade scrutiny arrangements in the G10.

She said: “The International Trade Committee will receive a signed deal in advance of it being laid by Constitutional Reform and Governance Act (CRAG) processes.

“It will also receive an independently verified impact assessment, on environmental, social, animal welfare and economic issues, before consulting with independent experts and producing a report.

“That report will be laid in Parliament. Parliamentarians will debate it; we have agreed there will be a debate after every signed trade deal.

“At that point, the CRAG process is triggered, and if there is an objection, essentially it can be delayed indefinitely following a vote.

“I think that is a pretty robust process.”