On 7 November, the UK government published the Trade Bill, having introduced it to Parliament for its First Reading. Together with the Customs Bill, it is designed to give the UK the powers necessary to bring existing EU trade agreements into UK statute. The bill also establishes a new independent body called the Trade Remedies Authority with the power to launch trade remedies investigations in the UK, a responsibility currently assigned to the European Commission. The bill will ensure that the UK can become an independent member of the Agreement on Government Procurement (rather than a member by virtue of being in the EU) which, according to the government, will maintain UK businesses’ access to public contracts worth £1.3 trillion. An accompanying factsheet explaining the bill was published by the Department of International Trade.
