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The International Agreements Committee has published a report on a Free Trade Agreement with Turkey, an Air Services Agreement with Iceland, and a Headquarters Agreement with the Square Kilometre Array Observatory. The Committee has drawn the agreement with Turkey to the special attention of the House.

• Report: Scrutiny of international agreements: Free Trade Agreement with Turkey, Air Services Agreement with Iceland, and Headquarters Agreement with the Square Kilometre Array Observatory (HTML)
• Report: Scrutiny of international agreements: Free Trade Agreement with Turkey, Air Services Agreement with Iceland, and Headquarters Agreement with the Square Kilometre Array Observatory (PDF)

The Committee draws the UK-Turkey Agreement to the special attention of the House because it is politically important and because, although its over-arching objective is to maintain provisions in the precursor EU-Turkey agreements (collectively known as the ‘EU-Turkey Arrangement’) it differs in certain important respects from them. Firstly, it converts the EU-Turkey customs union agreement into a standard free trade agreement, thus introducing rules of origin requirements on industrial goods traded between the UK and Turkey. Secondly, because of Turkey’s close alignment with the EU, the precursor Arrangement includes commitments in a range of areas, including technical barriers to trade, competition policy and subsidies, which are excluded from the UK-Turkey Agreement. Some provisions of the Agreement also rely on the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) and are subject to review after the TCA enters into force. Finally, although not a departure from the underlying EU-Turkey Arrangement, the Agreement does not address human rights and workers’ rights issues.

The Committee also reported the agreements with Iceland and the Square Kilometre Array Observatory for information.

Treaties

Reported for special attention:

• Free Trade Agreement, done at Ankara on 29 December 2020, between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Republic of Turkey (with Exchange of Letters) (CP 372, 2021)

Reported for information:

• Agreement, done at Reykjavik on 9 December and London on 16 December 2020, between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of Iceland concerning Air Services (CP 386, 2021)
• Headquarters Agreement, done at London on 3 February and Paris on 9 February 2021, between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Square Kilometre Array Observatory (CP 396, 2021)

Further information

• About Parliament: Select committees
• Visit Parliament: Watch committees