| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
Export Trade
7. Mr. Desmond Browne: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what steps he proposes to take to promote Britain's export trade. [5732]
Mr. Fatchett: We work hand in hand with the Department of Trade and Industry on export promotion. Together, we have established a new export forum which will consider how to improve our export promotion initiatives. We have given trade promotion a very high priority in my Department's mission statement.
Mr. Browne: Will my hon. Friend join me in paying tribute to the Scotch whisky industry for its considerable contribution to the UK's trade balance? Will he reassure the House that he will continue to use the World Trade Organisation's disputes settlement system to ensure a
level playing field for whisky exporters? In particular, will he ensure that everything possible is done to encourage India to include Scotch whisky in the early part of its trade liberalisation programme?
Mr. Fatchett: I am sure that my hon. Friend will have no difficulty in gaining support for his first point--that is, to ask everybody to support the value of Scotch whisky. I know that Scotch whisky is an important export for the United Kingdom and an important industry for my hon. Friend's constituents. We wish to see open markets for whatever product, and Scotch whisky is no exception.
During my recent visit to India, I raised with the Indian Finance Minister the question of open markets for Scotch whisky in India, and he was sympathetic to the argument. We need immediate action to achieve our objectives. I stressed the importance of that, and advised the Minister that Scotch whisky was a good nightcap for those touring India. He took my advice, and perhaps it will be open to others in the future.
Mr. Cash:
Does the Minister accept that the most essential means of promoting exports is competitiveness, which requires established Conservative principles with regard to the promotion of trade and economic liberalism? Will new Labour espouse these principles, as it has done with almost everything else we have put forward in the past 150 years? Does he agree that one effective way of demonstrating the Government's determination to improve exports would be to condemn and eliminate illegal subsidies in the EU?
Mr. Fatchett:
I was worried for a time that the hon. Gentleman might get through a question without mentioning Europe, and I was delighted that he arrived at that point at the end. As always, he saved the best bit for the end. Of course we condemn any subsidy that is illegal under European legislation.
8. Barbara Follett:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on human rights in Nicaragua. [5733]
Mr. Tony Lloyd:
I say with no apology that human rights are at the heart of our foreign policy. I recognise this receives approbation from hon. Members on both sides of the House. We will monitor human rights closely and raise our concerns with the Nicaraguan Government as necessary. We will encourage further steps to address police standards, prison conditions, banditry in the north of the country and discrimination against women and indigenous groups.
Barbara Follett:
Does my hon. Friend share my concern at the legislation recently introduced by the Nicaraguan Government which restricts the rights of women and children in that country and is in direct violation of the international agreements that Nicaragua signed in Beijing in 1996 and Copenhagen in 1995?
Mr. Lloyd:
I think that my hon. Friend is referring to the legislation on the ministry of the family. While we have not seen a draft of that legislation, I understand that it has received considerable criticism from
The Government's position is that we support the rights of all women and families. Within that framework, we urge the Nicaraguan Government, which has signed and ratified the UN conventions on the removal of all forms of discrimination against women and on the rights of the child, to recognise that those conventions have to be put into practice in domestic law. We ask the Nicaraguan Government to study them carefully to ensure that any legislation conforms with their international treaty obligations.
Mr. Swayne:
Will the Minister take this opportunity to distance himself from the position taken by the Secretary of State for International Development who, before free elections in that country, called for the expulsion of the American ambassador and the suppression of La Prensa, the anti-Sandinista newspaper?
Mr. Lloyd:
I merely suggest that the hon. Gentleman should take those matters up directly with the Secretary of State for International Development. I am reliably advised that there is not a shred of truth in what he said. Perhaps he ought to check the source of the information, rather than simply pander to the prejudices of an era that even in Nicaragua is long gone.
9. Mr. Skinner:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent discussions he has had with other EU Foreign Ministers about the parts of the Amsterdam agreement that affect his Department. [5734]
The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Mr. Doug Henderson):
My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary regularly discusses European Union issues with his EU counterparts.
Mr. Skinner:
What are the criteria for applicant countries wanting to join the European Union--the Common Market really, if we are talking straight? Every currency in the single market is being badgered to meet the criteria available to fit the economic and monetary union single currency, yet applicant countries apparently do not have to satisfy those to get in. Who pays the cost? Is it not true that we--the British taxpayers--are still paying large amounts of money for the German annexation of East Germany? Is it not odd that today we hear that Slovenia is being given a consolation prize--joining the Common Market--because it cannot get into NATO?
Mr. Henderson:
I am grateful to my hon. Friend, who, since the general election, has been building up a reputation for great support for the Government. I am glad that he is continuing that today. May I reassure him that enlargement of the European Community provides a great opportunity on the one hand for better security within Europe and on the other for British exporters to break into a larger market.
A number of criteria will be given prominence by the European Commission when it publishes its assessment of the state of the various countries and their suitability
for membership, which I think will be next Wednesday. The Commission will take into account a country's human rights record, the establishment of parliamentary democracy, the extent to which there has already been economic convergence and the possibility of further convergence. Of course, there will be an assessment of costs.
Mr. Howard:
I hope that my right hon. Friend the Member for Kensington and Chelsea (Mr. Clark) will not be too upset if I return to the question of human rights. Will the Minister tell us a bit about the human rights provisions of the treaty of Amsterdam? Does he agree that, if a member state is in serious and persistent breach of those provisions, the appropriate action should be to suspend that state from membership or expel it, rather than require it to remain a member and remove its voting rights?
Mr. Henderson:
As one refugee from the Home Office to another, I welcome the right hon. and learned Gentleman to his new post. I know that he is embarrassed about raising economic, defence and foreign policy issues arising out of Amsterdam. The issue that he has raised is a red herring. European Union countries together stand for human rights. That was endorsed in the Amsterdam treaty and was very much initiated and supported by this Government.
10. Dr. Lynne Jones:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when he expects to make the announcement of the first countries to be blacklisted under the new code of conduct for arms sales. [5737]
Mr. Tony Lloyd:
We shall announce, as soon as it is completed, the results of the review of criteria used in considering licence applications for the export of conventional arms. We are taking this exercise forward as a matter of urgency. The review does not focus on individual countries and will not involve the compilation of a blacklist. It will, however, meet our commitment not to permit the sale of arms to any regimes that might use them for internal repression or international aggression.
Dr. Jones:
My hon. Friend will be aware that the Government have raised expectations that their attitude to the arms trade will be different. The previous Government rejected calls for a ban on arms sales to Indonesia, despite photographic, video and eye-witness evidence of the use of UK equipment for internal repression. Will the Government draw up guidelines to allow the acceptance of such evidence and will he confirm that breaches of those guidelines will lead to the cessation of arms sales to the country concerned?
Mr. Lloyd:
As I have said, the review is urgently under way. My hon. Friend would not expect me to comment on its impact on individual countries because its purpose is to ensure that we have a truly global framework. Nevertheless, in the context of Indonesia, the Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Leeds, Central (Mr. Fatchett), has asked for precisely the sort of
Mr. Gerald Howarth:
In advance of the review, will the Minister make it clear that the Government support the principle of defence exports? The hon. Member for Birmingham, Selly Oak (Dr. Jones) called them arms sales, but they are in fact defence exports. Will he confirm, that our defence exports are vital for Britain because they sustain tens of thousands of jobs, often high-technology jobs, not only in my constituency but in those of many Labour Members; that they enable us to provide our services with the best British equipment at a price that we can afford; and that they give us foreign policy levers over countries with which we enjoy good friendship?
Mr. Lloyd:
The Government might find it easier to take lectures from Conservative Members, and from the hon. Gentleman in particular, if they had not been part of a Government with an incredibly sleazy record on arms sales. He well recalls the way in which that Government prostituted the aid budget to obtain arms sales at the time of the Pergau dam scandal, and how that Government wriggled and tried to hide the truth about arms sales to Iraq. They were prepared not only to put at risk the lives of British people in the services but were so economically incompetent that we are still owed money by the Iraqis for those deals. If he wants to talk about arms sales, he should start by apologising to the House for his role in that shameful Government.
Mr. Mullin:
Talking of Indonesia--my hon. Friend will recall that the regime there came to power on the back of a bloodbath matched in Asia only by Pol Pot--was he as surprised as I was to find that the Ministry of Defence has given invitations, no doubt left over from the previous regime, to three Indonesian generals who are due in Britain later this month to discuss who knows what? What discussions has he had with the MOD about whether that is a good idea and whether it will send the right message to the Indonesian Government?
Mr. Lloyd:
I can confirm that the invitation was issued by the previous Government.
Mr. Gerald Howarth:
Disgraceful.
Mr. Lloyd:
Conservative Members speak for themselves.
We do not know yet whether the invitation will be taken up. I can confirm that any sales to any part of the world that arise from that or other exhibitions of military equipment will, of course, be subject to the export licence procedures that I have already discussed. Inevitably, our commitment to making sure that the review ensures that we do not provide arms that can be used for internal repression or external aggression will also apply to such arms sales.
Mr. Faber:
Further to the last answer, does not the existing policy guidance document on defence exports already include the need to take into account the human rights record of recipient countries? With exactly what aspect of the current criteria does the Minister disagree?
Mr. Lloyd:
I suggest that the hon. Gentleman does not anticipate the outcome of the review but, that said, I remind him--as I said to the hon. Member for Aldershot (Mr. Howarth) a few moments ago--that his party in government ran defence sales in such a way that they brought great shame to Britain. They made Britain's name abroad one of disrepute. We intend to ensure that Britain, while recognising our legitimate right to trade on the world stage, operates with a degree of moral responsibility. That might shock Conservative Members, but at least we shall ensure that we can hold our heads high in the international arena.
| Next Section
| Index | Home Page |