Trade Act 2021

Policy background

Government Procurement Agreement

2. The GPA is a plurilateral agreement which mutually opens up government procurement markets among its parties within the framework of the WTO. The UK acceded as an independent party on 1 January 2021.
3. The GPA consists of (a) the main text of the agreement and (b) schedules of coverage. The main text establishes rules for transparent and non-discriminatory conditions of competition in government procurement. These rules apply to procurement activities that parties have agreed to cover under the GPA. Details of the entities, goods, services and value thresholds for procurement activities in specific jurisdictions are set out in the schedules of coverage.
4. The Trade Act provides the Government and the devolved authorities with the power to make the changes to domestic legislation which are necessary to ensure the UK’s obligations arising from its status as an independent party to the GPA can be fully implemented. It also ensures that the UK is able to take action against GPA parties who do not observe their obligations to the UK.

International trade agreements – maintaining trade arrangements with other countries

5. The EU trade agreements that the UK participated in solely through its membership of the EU no longer apply to the UK following the end of the transition period. The Government has sought to ensure continuity in the effects of these trade and investment relationships as far as possible by working to replicate predecessor EU agreements.
6. The Trade Act provides the Government and the devolved authorities with the power to make the changes to domestic legislation that are necessary to ensure that these agreements can be fully implemented. This implementation power can only be used to implement international trade agreements with countries with which the EU already had signed trade agreements by 31 January 2020. The power cannot be used to implement a free trade agreement with the USA or China.

Trade Remedies Authority

7. Trade remedies measures protect domestic industries against injury caused by unfair trading practices, such as dumping and subsidies, and from unforeseen surges in imports. Investigations, decisions and monitoring of trade remedies measures were performed by the European Commission on behalf of all Member States when the UK was a member of the EU. The Trade Act establishes a UK body – the Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) – to ensure the UK can continue to provide a safety net to domestic industries now that the UK has left
   the EU.
8. The Act establishes the TRA as a non‐departmental public body. It is responsible for conducting trade remedies investigations under a statutory framework provided by the Taxation (Cross-border Trade) Act 2018, and for making impartial recommendations to the Secretary of State. 1
9. Measures in the Act also require the TRA, upon request, to provide advice, support and assistance to the Secretary of State in connection with the Secretary of State’s trade-related functions, international trade disputes, and the TRA’s functions. This provision also allows the TRA to provide advice, support and assistance to others as it considers appropriate in relation to international trade and trade remedies.

Trade and Agriculture Commission

10. Measures in the Trade Act put the Trade and Agriculture Commission on a statutory footing.
11. Section 42 of the Agriculture Act 2020 places a duty on the Secretary of State to report on whether the measures in certain free trade agreements applicable to trade in agricultural products are consistent with maintaining UK levels of statutory protection in relation to animal or plant life or health, animal welfare, and the environment.
12. The Trade Act empowers the Secretary of State to appoint members to an expert committee named the Trade and Agriculture Commission, to provide advice under section 42 of the Agriculture Act 2020. It places the Secretary of State under a duty to seek advice from the TAC in this respect and to lay any advice received before Parliament, to aid transparency and Parliamentary scrutiny for new free trade agreements.
13. The Trade Act also provides for administrative matters relating to the TAC, and for reviews of the TAC’s continued operation at least every three years.

Trade information

14. Other measures in the Trade Act allow HMRC to collect data on behalf of the Government to confirm the number of exporters of goods and services in the UK and allow the Government to identify those exporters for trade promotion purposes.
15. The Trade Act also permits HMRC to share data with other bodies so that they can fulfil their public functions related to trade. This power provides access to information which the Government and the TRA need to carry out functions that were previously carried out by the European Commission. That information will inform the Government in designing and monitoring trade policy, including conducting trade disputes, and assist the TRA in investigating trade remedy cases. It also enables HMRC to share data with international organisations that oversee the world trade system (for example the WTO).
16. These data sharing powers are subject to strict safeguards under the Act, the Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Act 2005 and the Data Protection Act 2018, ensuring appropriate protection and use of the data.
17. Equivalent data sharing powers were enacted through sections 1 to 3 of the Trade (Disclosure of Information) Act 2020 (DOI Act), which received Royal Assent in December 2020 to facilitate data sharing prior to the end of the Transition Period. Section 4(1) of the DOI Act contains provision for the expiry of sections 1 to 3 of that Act. The expiry of these sections is subject to the Secretary of State being of the opinion that an Act resulting from the Trade Act is passed which contains provisions that have the same effect as, or similar effect to, sections 1 to 3 of the DOI Act.
18. If the Secretary of State is of this opinion, the Secretary of State must, by regulations made by statutory instrument, provide for sections 1 to 3 of that Act to expire at the time that the ‘corresponding provisions’ come into force to any extent.