International Trade Committee Chair comments on PAC Trade Negotiations report

Commenting on the Public Accounts Committee report and its recommendations, Angus Brendan MacNeil MP, Chair of the International Trade Committee, said:

“There is now clear agreement across the House of Commons that the Government is not being transparent about the deals it is signing and that it needs to allow greater parliamentary scrutiny. Treating MPs as add-ons at the end of the process is simply not good enough. Today’s report also underlines the need for the Department for International Trade to produce the broader trade strategy we have been calling for, rather than simply engage in ad hoc negotiations. Doing so will allow us to see where it has been successful, what trade-offs it has made, and where its negotiations have not been up to scratch.”