The Department for International Trade are soliciting views, especially from SMEs, on possible future UK trade agreements with USA, Australia New Zeeland and CPTPP (Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam) by Friday 26 October at https://consultations.trade.gov.uk. Key questions include:-
- What do you stand to gain from free trade agreements (FTAs) with these specific countries?
- What do your customers in those locations stand to gain?
- What are your top priorities/ concerns for these FTA’s?
- What are the risks you want Government to mitigate in negotiations?
- Are there any particular barriers to trade which you think government should prioritise to make trading easier with any specific countries?.
Given photonics is both an SME dominated and heavily exporting industry the PLG encourage Photonics manufacturers to submit input to this consultation. Note the short term priority relates to FTAs with the countries noted above. Trade and investment reviews with additional countries are underway as a precursor to other additional FTAs.
