European Union (Definition of Treaties) (Republic of Korea Free Trade Agreement) Order 2012

Debate between Baroness Wilcox and Lord Edmiston

Monday 16th January 2012 Grand Committee

[Baroness Wilcox]

That is a very good question, to which I shall give an answer. On the £500 million each year, that will come into force over time. I hope that that is of some help to the noble Lord.

[Lord Edmiston]

Is the Minister aware of certain practices that used to exist in South Korea? It may be that this does not happen any more, but in previous years anyone who drove a non-Korean-manufactured car could look forward to a visit from the tax inspector and a thorough investigation. There were various means by which South Korea managed to keep a very high percentage of local cars in its market. Is the Minister aware of other practices of that nature?

[Baroness Wilcox]

We are aware of difficulties that have happened in the past. When the noble Lord reads about the matter in Hansard, I hope that he will realise that we have put in place various restraints and careful practices with which we will ensure that the Koreans have to comply if we are to trade with them. We hope that they will want to trade with us even more than we will want to trade with them. I realise that the motor industry is a very sensitive issue, but we have a range of actions that we may take if we see that there is danger of unfair trade taking place.

The EU-South Korea free trade agreement is ground-breaking in its approach. We have reached an agreement that responds adequately to EU concerns on such things as diesel emissions and post-market surveillance of safety standards. We have tried where we can to write as many things as possible on to the face of the agreement to ensure that, if we feel that there is unfair practice going on, industry in this country can quickly tell us and we can quickly return to see whether we can quickly sort out the problems.