Treaty Scrutiny: Working Practices (EUC Report)

Earl of Sandwich Excerpts

Monday 7th September 2020 Grand Committee

[The Earl of Sandwich (CB) [V]]

My Lords, it is a real pleasure to follow my noble friend. We owe him a great deal for these deliberations. I was a happy member of the EU External Affairs Sub-Committee until a year ago, when, under new Brexit jurisdiction, I entered the jungle of international agreements. These are predominantly trade deals of some complexity. I record my thanks to the clerks and professional advisers who are steering our treaties committee through them.

The German expression “Handel ist Wandel”—trade means change—has been used to describe the positive economic and political changes in eastern Europe, but the wheel may have turned as applied to the ongoing US negotiations with China, featuring strong sanctions and withdrawal from Huawei. Addressing human rights or climate change through trade with some countries now seems inconceivable, but we need to maintain standards, especially with the countries we already know and relate to.

Our Government have embarked positively on several new deals simultaneously, the most critical being with the EU itself. There I believe we are dragging our feet, given the historic importance of this partnership and its importance to other agreements. It is a subject which needs urgent debate, especially if the Northern Ireland agreement is threatened, as we heard today. I am glad that this will come up tomorrow. Every day we get wooden answers from Ministers while vital mutual questions of health, agriculture, climate change and security remain unresolved.

Then there are the other agreements: the important but half-baked US deal; and the more promising agreements with Japan, Australia and New Zealand and, through them, a possible one with the Pacific. It is an ambitious programme to say the least and it is vital that Parliament and the stakeholders concerned keep abreast of it. Using the CRaG framework, as we have heard, has been a good start, encouraged by a number of Select Committee reports. Our new committee, acting in conjunction with the Commons International Trade Committee, has already received evidence on the US and Japan deals, and has heard from both the Secretaries of State. It has also published a report on working practices. In that report there are important recommendations, already mentioned, on transparency, timescale and the need for trust between Parliament and the Executive.

It is important to recognise that the Government have in these early stages co-operated quite closely with the committee, but I repeat the need for the FCO to pay more attention to the human rights sections in the EMs, difficult as this will be. We have had reassurances from our Human Rights Minister, the noble Lord, Lord Ahmad, and he may well refer to these today.

My background being with development NGOs, I am also concerned that NGOs and lobbyists have proper access to information. These days, there are at least as many experts among NGOs as there are in government; in fact, many of them have moved into government. Of course, there are also confidential issues which have to be discussed inside Parliament. The Trade Bill in the Commons was highly disappointing from the point of view of our report. It could have done more to reassure the public as well as Parliament. Jonathan Djanogly and others were trying to insist, through reasonable amendments, that the Government should provide proper reporting on the content of agreements interlined for negotiation and ratification. I did not speak on this at Second Reading and I am using this opportunity to reiterate those complaints made by Members of Parliament.

I end by thanking the noble and learned Lord, Lord Goldsmith, for presenting our report so well, my noble friend Lord Kinnoull for leading for the European Union Select Committee, and the Minister for replying and for the positive remarks that I know he is about to make.