Last week, news began circulating in the media about the signing of a trade deal by the UK and Peru, Colombia and Ecuador, which will be replicating the terms of the EU Trade Agreement with these Andean countries when Britain exits the European Union. The deal was signed in Quito on 15 May.

According to a British government website, these trade deals are replicated “as far as possible [but] there may be some changes to ensure that new agreements work for both countries”.

There is not much information about the content of the signed deal as yet, including whether Title IX provisions on sustainable development and civil society participation will remain. These are, in our opinion, essential components of any future trade deal if they are to ensure that future trade relations are not at the expense of provisions on sustainable development, including negative effects to the environment and labour provisions.

We will continue to monitor this issue and report when we have more details.