Guidance

Trade Bill factsheet: devolution

Published 14 December 2018

This guidance was withdrawn on 20 March 2020

This page has been withdrawn because it’s out of date.

You can read about the Trade Bill at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/trade-bill.

1. What the Trade Bill cannot do

The Trade Bill will not take any powers away from the devolved administrations. Every decision that a devolved administration could make before exit day, they can make afterwards.

The powers in the Trade Bill cannot be used to implement an EU-third country free trade agreement that has not been signed before exit day. This Bill is purely about continuity of existing agreements signed before exit day that we are party to due to our membership of the EU.

The powers in the Trade Bill also cannot be used to implement future free trade agreements with countries such as USA and China. The Trade Bill, therefore does not address the role of the devolved administrations in future trade agreements. We have proposed an entirely separate process for this as set out by the Secretary of State for International Trade on 16 July 2018

The steps we are taking to introduce trade legislation will not at this point affect our trade relationships with third countries, the operation of the Common Commercial Policy of the EU, or the international trading frameworks within which the UK operates as a member of the EU

2. Concurrent powers and legislative consent motions (LCM)

The concurrent powers contained in the Trade Bill allow for regulations to be made once for the whole of the UK, where it makes practical sense to do so. An example is the case of the EU Enforcement Regulation which governs the exercise of EU rights for the application and enforcement of international trade rules, including the Agreement on Government Procurement Agreement (GPA). The GPA power will allow the UK to amend the EU regulation to ensure that it can implement the outcome of a GPA dispute.

The UK government will not normally use the concurrent powers in areas of devolved competence without the agreement of the relevant devolved administrations, and never without consulting them first.

The use of concurrent powers has been a feature since the devolution settlements of the late 1990s. Concurrent powers were used to implement EU law ^{[footnote 1]} via the European Communities Act 1972, before this legislation was repealed by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018.

Because the implementing powers in the Trade Bill relating to trade agreement continuity Agreements and the GPA could be used in areas of devolved competency, those powers will engage with the Legislative Consent Motion (LCM) process in the devolved legislatures.

The Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly have each published a memorandum setting out their views on whether the Parliament should provide an LCM for the Trade Bill. In each case, they describe what is currently preventing them from recommending an LCM for the Bill.

In response, the Government made amendments at Commons report stage of the Trade Bill, reinforced by commitments made on the floor of the House of Commons, that represent a significant step towards meeting the issues raised in both the Scottish and Welsh LCM memoranda.

In particular, these amendments substantially increase the degree to which the devolved administrations can amend areas of retained EU law using the Trade Bill powers. The only limitation on the devolved administrations’ ability to use powers in the Trade Bill to amend retained EU law is in respect of those areas where a common UK wide approach is desirable.

International relations is a reserved matter for the UK government, as agreed in the Concordat on International Relations but the devolved executives and legislatures may be involved in the treaty-making process and implementation. The UK government has signed treaties on many policy areas, such as terrorism and extradition and human rights, and implemented them UK-wide to ensure a consistent approach.

“For current EU agreements we support continuity in the simplest way possible. 10% of our exports go to countries covered by EU agreements. These include Colombia, Korea, Morocco and the Dominican Republic.”

Scotch Whisky Association

“[the Trade Bill] imposes no new restriction on the powers of Scottish Ministers.”

Law Society of Scotland

3. Key facts

3.1 Scotland

• Scottish goods exports to countries with existing EU trade agreements totalled £3.5 billion in 2017 -representing 12% of total Scottish goods exports.

• Over half of the total Scottish exports of animal or vegetable fats and oils go to Norway.

• Scottish goods imports from countries with existing EU-third country trade agreements totalled £5.1 billion in 2017 - representing 21% of total Scottish goods imports.

• Almost a quarter of total Scottish imports of oil seeds and oleaginous fruits originate from Canada.

3.2 Wales

• Welsh goods exports to countries with existing EU trade agreements totalled £1.6 billion in 2017 - representing 9.5% of total Welsh goods exports.

• Over a third (36.9%) of total Welsh exports of the classification ‘Metalliferous ores and metal scrap’ go to Canada.

• Welsh goods imports from countries with existing EU-third country trade agreements totalled £3.0 billion in 2017 - representing 17% of total Welsh goods imports.

• Almost 40% (38.3%) of total Welsh imports of the classification ‘Metalliferous ores and metal scrap’ originate from Canada.

3.3 Northern Ireland

• Northern Ireland’s goods exports to countries with existing EU trade agreements totalled £1.0 billion in 2017 - representing 11.7% of total Northern Ireland goods exports.

• Over half (52.3%) of total Northern Ireland exports of the classification ‘Other transport equipment’ (railway vehicles, aircrafts, ships) go to Canada.

• Northern Ireland goods imports from countries with existing EU-third country trade agreements totalled £0.3 billion in 2017 - representing 4.7% of total Northern Ireland goods imports.

• Almost a fifth (16.2%) of total Northern Ireland imports of textile, yarn and fabrics originate from Turkey.

3.4 Department for International Trade

The UK’s Department for International Trade (DIT) has overall responsibility for promoting UK trade across the world and attracting foreign investment to our economy. We are a specialised government body with responsibility for negotiating international trade policy, supporting business, as well as delivering an outward-looking trade diplomacy strategy.

Any enquiries regarding this publication should be sent to us at enquiries@trade.gov.uk.

1. The body of law that is converted and preserved under the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 is known as ‘retained EU law’. The Act will preserve the laws we have made in the UK to implement our EU obligations (e.g. the laws which implement EU directives). It will also convert existing EU law which applies directly in the UK’s legal systems (such as EU regulations and EU decisions) into UK law. The Act will also retain remaining rights and obligations which apply directly in the UK as a result of section 2(1) of the European Communities Act 1972, including directly effective rights and obligations within EU treaties. ↩