WRITTEN STATEMENT

BY

THE WELSH GOVERNMENT

TITLE	Ministerial Forum for Trade
DATE	09 August 2022
BY	Vaughan Gething, Minister for Economy

In accordance with the inter-institutional relations agreement, I can report to Members that I attended the Ministerial Forum for Trade on 5 July 2022.

The meeting was attended by;

– Rt Hon Penny Mordaunt MP, Minister of State for Trade Policy

– Ivan McKee, Scottish Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism and Enterprise

– Gordon Lyons, Northern Ireland Executive Minister for the Economy

The Ministerial Forum for Trade provides the primary forum to discuss matters of trade policy between the UK government, Northern Ireland Executive, Scottish Government and Welsh Government.

In the forum, I agreed the revised terms of reference for the group and highlighted our broad support for the UK Governments free trade agreement negotiations.  I also raised the importance of engaging closely with the Welsh Government to ensure expertise and interests are represented in trade deals and also in other agreements impacting on trade, such as the Memorandum of Understanding reached with individual US states.

Following the agreement of the revised terms of reference, the Ministerial Forum for Trade will now transition into the Inter-ministerial Group (Trade) for Trade but continue to serve the same function. A joint communique will be published on the UK government webpage.

The Inter-ministerial Group (Trade) will meet again at a later point in the year.

This statement is being issued during recess in order to keep members informed. Should members wish me to make a further statement or to answer questions on this when the Senedd returns I would be happy to do so.