You can view the call for evidence at the UK Parliament website: The Scrutiny of International Treaties and other international agreements in the 21st century
On this page, we provide an overview of the points we made in our submission.
NFU members: You can also download and read our full submission document: NFU response: Scrutiny of trade deals
What is the inquiry about?
In the UK, the government negotiates, signs, ratifies, and withdraws from treaties under the royal prerogative. This means that Parliament does not have a legal role in setting the negotiating objectives for an agreement, monitoring the progress of negotiations, or overseeing the implementation of a trade deal. Since 2010, Part 2 of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 (CRAG) defines the role of the Parliament in the approval of treaties.
Under CRAG, once Parliament is presented with the finalised version of a treaty (which includes trade agreements) by the government, both Houses have 21 sitting days within which to scrutinise the treaty. During this time either House can agree a motion that the treaty should not be ratified, or if no motion is passed against it, the treaty is automatically ratified at the end of the 21-day period. In this process, only the House of Commons can delay ratification of treaties, which makes its lack of activity in scrutinising recent trade agreements a concern.