International Agreements Committee — hearing of 16 June 2026: transcript & video

00:05 - 01:44

Speaker 3

Wonderful. Well, welcome again everyone to the International Agreements Committee witness session today. I'm extremely pleased to be joined by Dr Nicolette Butler, the senior lecturer in law at University of Manchester, and Chris Bates, special counsel for Clifford Chance LLP. And I hope you've had an opportunity to see some of the work we've been doing up until now on this inquiry. We felt, and I don't think this is a particularly unique sentiment, that the world of trade has changed significantly.

Not only has technology made significant differences, our economy has become a predominantly services economy, and a lot of the mechanisms that we use in terms of how we promote our trade arrangements probably need to be thought about in light of the changes in our economy. And clearly the world has changed in how some of our allies and other nations view free trade, with volatility in tariffs, an erosion to some extent of the multilateral system that we've counted on for the last 30 or so years. So we as a country have to adapt, and we're taking evidence from a whole range of stakeholders in terms of how we can adapt in order to promote growth in Britain. So thank you very much indeed both of you for joining us. We have, I think, an almost complete complement of our committee today as well, which is excellent news.

And if I may start, the first question is from Lord Anderson. Now, if I may say before you start, Lord Anderson, there are two of you. It's not necessary that both of you answer every question, but clearly if you want to come in, then do so. And we're joined also by Lord McDonald online as well, so if he wants to interject, to raise the hand, and we can see him clearly enough and then he can come in as well. So thank you very much indeed, Lord Anderson.

01:44 - 02:27

Speaker 2

My question is probably best addressed to Mr Bates. I'm sure our two witnesses, Chairman, are delighted that they've attracted such a fine audience. The evidence we've received is that free trade agreements are more relevant, more suited to trading goods rather than trade in services. So my question is really this: what provisions in trade agreements have delivered meaningful liberalisation for financial and professional services rather than goods, which have been the focus of most of them?

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