With Brexit negotiations underway, the UK government must pass legislation on trade in line with the powers it is expected to gain to negotiate and conclude UK trade deals. This legislation will be captured under the trade bill due to come before parliament in September 2017.

The UK's decision to leave the EU means that, for the first time in 40 years, trade policy will return to UK government competence. In the two-year period in which Brexit negotiations take place, the UK government and public attention will inevitably be focused on negotiations with the EU. However, with the UK government's ability to negotiate its own trade deals comes a huge opportunity to achieve a truly progressive trade agenda for Southern countries.

Modern trade and investment deals cover almost every aspect of everyday life: from healthcare to environmental and labour standards, and international development. This makes them everybody's business. The UK's arrangements for public and parliamentary engagement with and scrutiny of trade are woefully inadequate and need to be reformed before Brexit takes place.

This briefing is published by War on Want, alongside the Trade Justice Movement, Global Justice Now, Unison, and Friends of the Earth.