The UK government introduced the Trade Bill in the House of Commons on 19 March this year. It aims to replace trade agreements the UK had as an EU member state. In particular, the bill seeks to give the UK government powers to implement “rolled-over” trade agreements.

The Scottish government lodged a Legislative Consent Memorandum (LCM) on the bill on 18 August 2020. The LCM sets out the Scottish government’s views and recommendations on legislative consent. It also identifies areas of concern about the content and coverage of the bill.

The Finance and Constitution Committee is the lead committee for scrutinising the bill and the associated LCM. In order to inform the committee’s scrutiny, it is is seeking views on the impact of the bill and its associated LCM.

In particular, the committee would be interested in hearing views with regard to the following areas

1. The appropriateness of the powers proposed in the bill for UK Ministers and Scottish Ministers;
2. The restrictions which the bill seeks to apply to the powers of Scottish Ministers;
3. The implications of the Bill’s provisions for:
   1. the operability of the devolution settlement;
   2. any common frameworks that may be agreed between the Scottish and UK governments relating to the repatriation of powers from the EU;
4. The necessity for and implications of the bill’s provisions relating to implementing international trade agreements on Scottish policy making particularly in relation to mutual recognition, procurement, enforcement and compensation;
5. The interaction between the provisions of the Trade Bill and those contained in the European Union Withdrawal Act, the EU Withdrawal Agreement Act, and the UK government White Paper proposals for the UK Internal Market and UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Continuity) (Scotland) Bill and the implications of any interaction for the devolution settlement;
6. The proposals for a Trade Remedies Authority including its accountability and membership (and the need for knowledge of the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland economies);
7. Devolved and UK parliamentary scrutiny, as well as wider public scrutiny, of the application of the provisions of the bill to the ‘rolling over’ of current EU trade agreements’;
8. The appropriateness of the disclosure of information provisions in the bill;
9. The need for, and duration of, the ‘sunset’ provisions in the Trade Bill.

The closing date for receipt of submissions is 9 September 2020. Please make your submission by email here.