A protocol to the double taxation convention
with Israel was signed on 17 January
2019. The text of the protocol is available on HM Revenue
and Customs’ pages of the gov.uk website and will be
deposited in the Libraries of both Houses. The text will be
scheduled to a draft Order in Council and laid before the
House of Commons in due course.
Extracts from
Committee stage (Lords) (day 2) of the Trade
Bill
The Minister of State, Department for
International Trade (Baroness Fairhead)
(Con):...With Switzerland, it will not just be a
case of ratification, then all done. As we committed to,
parliamentary reports will be laid before the House so that
it can see whether any changes have been made and, if so,
what their impact is. Today, it was announced that a free
trade agreement has been reached in principle
with Israel. I say this not because two
out of 40 is the vast majority but because I want to
provide reassurance that progress is being made. As noble
Lords will be aware, the agreement with Switzerland is one
of our most important FTAs with the EU—in fact, it is the
most important...
(Con):...On a brighter note, I was glad to see
this afternoon that Dr Fox, the International Trade
Secretary, had agreed in principle to a UK-Israel agreement—so he has
been busy in Switzerland. Rather than going down the road
of the amendment, I would prefer one last push to negotiate
a good deal with the EU. There is more to do, but we should
keep trying, especially on the backstop. Some parts of the
Government have clearly not given up, as we heard in the EU
Committee today from the Secretary of State, , which is why, of
course, I am afraid I missed some of today’s
proceedings...
(LD):...Before the Minister sits down, I wonder
whether he could advance this clarity. The noble Baroness,
Lady Neville-Rolfe, states that we have now agreed with
Israel to roll over our existing trading relationship with
Israel. Israel does not have a free trade agreement with
the European Union, or with us now. It has an association
agreement, which has been in force since 2000. That is part
of the pan-Euro-Mediterranean cumulation on rules of
origin. This means that if we are replicating our existing
relationship with Israel, we are replicating the rules of
origin relationship that Israel has with the European
Union. It also has common rules of origin procedures with
Turkey, so if the Government’s position is that we are
simply rolling over all of our current trading
relationships through an association agreement with Israel,
it means that we are now going to be bound by common rules
of origin procedures with the western Balkans, the Faroe
Islands and Turkey in the pan-Euro arrangement.
I am not sure why the Faroe Islands is part of that, but
the reality is—and this is the point I was trying to make
in my contribution—that we have to be open. If you want
complete independence of trading relationships in the way
the world trades now, that is impossible, so the Government
have to have some limitations on it. If it is replicating
the Israeli agreement, it is replicating exactly the same
rules of origin alignment that we currently have with
Turkey, and Turkey is part of a customs union with the
European Union. That is quite simple, too.
The Minister of State, Department for International
Development (Lord Bates) (Con): The committee will
come to rules of origin shortly, but on that point, that is
the reason why, in the agreement that we are proposing—the
deal that is on the table—we propose that to ensure that
trading goods between the UK and the EU remains
frictionless in the UK, there will be no routing
requirements for rules of origin on trading goods between
the UK and the EU. What we are talking about with Israel is
consistent with that...
To read the whole debate, CLICK HERE
