Comprehensive Economic Partnership (EUC Report)

Lord Foster of Bath Excerpts

Thursday 26th November 2020 Grand Committee

[Lord Foster of Bath (LD)]

My Lords, as a relatively new member of the IA committee, I have been impressed by the expertise of fellow members; by the skill and professionalism of the committee staff, to whom great credit must go for this report; and by the dedication and, above all, patience of our chairman, the noble and learned Lord, Lord Goldsmith.

Whatever the merits of the Government’s claim that the Japan deal is more than a rollover of JEEPA, it should be welcomed as providing

“valuable continuity for businesses, consumers and other stakeholders”,

and as a stepping stone to joining the CPTPP. But it is nowhere near as ambitious as many had hoped. Agreement to negotiate a deal was not reached until January last year, but it was a further 17 months before negotiations even began, so they had to be conducted at pace. I congratulate our negotiators on what they were able to achieve in such a short time, but it meant that nothing that required any change to primary legislation in either country could be included. Hopes for an ambitious deal were dashed and many proposals from consultees had to be ditched, calling into question the claim that this is a comprehensive deal.

Indeed, as other noble Lords have already pointed out, there are several examples of the Government overselling the deal. I hope that the Minister will accept that criticism. I note also that the UK’s overselling is in marked contrast to the Japanese who, despite appearing to gain far more from the deal than we do, have been much more muted. But working out those gains is difficult given current limitations in economic modelling and because, unhelpfully, the Government have compared the deal against trading on WTO terms rather than against JEEPA. I hope that this will not be the case in future deals.

Operating on a compressed timetable reduced ambition, but it also meant confusion and disappointment for the numerous stakeholders. The intellectual property chapter provides a good example. Of those aspects impacting the creative industries, our report says that, despite government claims of significant improvements on JEEPA,

“many of the additions focus on future discussions and awareness raising about existing enforcement procedures in both countries, rather than securing new … protections.”

To protect IP, the creative industries had sought much more. They wanted tougher measures to enable blocking of websites containing illegal content, along the lines that we already have in our own Digital Economy Act —but they did not get them. Can the Minister confirm that the UK will be reliant upon Japan’s existing IP enforcement procedures and that the deal does not commit Japan to any specific changes to those procedures?

The other two creative industry asks—public performance rights and artist resale rights—were not achieved either. Does the Minister acknowledge that stakeholders were given inaccurate expectations of what could be achieved in the deal?

The creative industries and other sectors may benefit from provisions on digital and data. But, as my noble friend Lord Oates pointed out, there are concerns about those provisions. One is that they could herald the lowering of our current GDPR-based data protection standards, perhaps to enable us to gain admission to the CPTPP given the lower standards of data protection in the Asia-Pacific region. In JEEPA, onward data flows are specifically excluded. Under CEPA, however, data which flows from the UK to Japan could be passed to other countries, through trade deals that Japan has with those countries, where lower data protection standards apply, thereby giving reduced protection to the personal data of UK citizens. I am not a believer in conspiracy theories, so will the Minister give an assurance that nothing in this agreement, or any future agreements, will reduce the standard of protection of the personal data of UK citizens from what is currently enjoyed?

This is a welcome deal because of the continuity that it provides. But it is little more than a rollover deal, one which has been oversold by the Government, appears to be far more beneficial to Japan than to the UK, and for which the Government have not even provided analysis to enable comparison of it with what we currently enjoy.