International Trade Secretary Dr Liam Fox said:

“I welcomed the opportunity to discuss important trade issues with my ministerial colleagues from the G20 – and the statement we agreed that calls for keeping markets open, addressing economic development and reinvigorating the international trading system.

“The Argentinian Presidency has highlighted the issues of Food and Agricultural Global Value Chains and the New Industrial Revolution. For the UK, a priority was to advance discussions on digital trade. This is an area where we should strive for substantive international trade rules that can help businesses and consumers across the world.

“I voiced the UK’s continued support for the multilateral trading system and called on all G20 countries to be WTO compliant.

“I also made the case against protectionism. As I said in Parliament – protectionism has never ended well and the benefits we have brought in terms of the elimination of poverty and the support for our global security agenda is based upon free trade.

“WTO modernisation – was an important issue that I raised. The UK is a strong supporter of the rules-based multilateral trading system, with the WTO at its centre.

“An alternative to a rules-based system is a deals-based system, which will upset the balance of global trade.

“We need to continue to work together as the G20 to ensure that the WTO is ready to tackle the underlying causes of the current trade tensions more effectively.”

Download the G20 statement here

The Secretary of State for Scotland gave evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s Finance and Constitution Committee, then its Justice Committee, on 6 September 2018.

Mr Mundell was there to support the committees’ scrutiny of the constitutional matters arising as a consequence of leaving the European Union.

Speaking at the opening of the Finance and Constitution Committee’s session, Mr Mundell said:

I deeply regret that the Scottish Parliament felt unable to give consent to the EU (Withdrawal) Act. To the very end we worked constructively with the Scottish Government to try to reach agreement, making significant changes to the legislation. Throughout, the UK Government upheld our commitment to the devolution settlement.

We remain fully committed to devolution and we will continue to seek legislative consent, take on board views, and work with the devolved administrations on Bills. We have worked well with the Scottish Government in the past and we must ensure we continue to work well together in the future. The progress we have made, and are making, on UK common frameworks is testament to this and, I hope indicative of our future relationship.

Mr Mundell went on to say that he was satisfied with the high level of work going on between officials of both governments on preparations for Exit, and that preparation for Brexit can only be done effectively if Scotland’s two governments work collaboratively together.

Published 17 September 2018