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<p>Discussions with all partner countries have demonstrated a commitment to finding
a pragmatic way to ensure continuity of our existing international agreements. Alongside
the Withdrawal Agreement, the EU agreed to notify its treaty partners that the UK
be treated as a Member State for the purposes of EU international agreements during
the Implementation Period (IP). This includes trade agreements. A number of countries
have already publicly welcomed this approach (Library deposit of 13 September DEP2018-0926
provides a list of countries).</p><p>Nevertheless, to ensure preparedness for a ‘no
deal’ scenario, we have already signed a number of agreements.</p><p>The Government
recently updated the House on our progress to achieve continuity of our existing free
trade agreements, and I refer the honourable member to the Government’s written statement
published on 21<sup>st</sup> February 2019. We will continue to inform the House as
soon as further agreements are signed.</p>
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