Economic Partnership Agreement: Kenya

Lord Oates Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd March 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Oates (LD)]

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble and learned Lord, Lord Goldsmith. I have the privilege of being a member of the International Agreements Committee, which he chairs so adeptly. I also look forward to hearing the maiden speech of the noble Lord, Lord McDonald of Salford. Although I have not met him before today, I have a strong connection to him because my nephew James worked for him and my father married him—I should stress that my father is a clergyman.

I join the noble and learned Lord, Lord Goldsmith, in welcoming some of the movement by the Government on the issues of scrutiny, in particular on what I believe has already been dubbed the “Grimstone rule”, by which the Government have agreed that where the IAC has requested a debate on a treaty, the Government will not ratify it before time has been provided for that debate. Some would say that that is the absolute basic minimum requirement that any self-respecting Parliament could accept, but it is welcome none the less.

In the short time I have available, I will focus briefly on two things. The first is the impact on regional integration in east Africa of the decision by our Government to embark on a bilateral agreement with the Government of Kenya rather than pursuing an agreement with the East African Community as a whole. I understand, of course, as set out in our report, that Kenya had a particular issue, being the only country that was not classified as a least developed country. However, as paragraph 13 of the IAC report highlights, the Government have failed to explain adequately what other options they considered for ensuring continuity of trade with Kenya other than by concluding a bilateral EPA, which inevitably has caused huge concern to other EAC members. I hope that the Minister will take the opportunity to explain this in his response.

The agreement causes serious difficulties in the region and appears to place Kenya in breach of its treaty obligations to the EAC. We know, of course, that the UK Government briefly toyed with the idea of breaching our own treaty obligations with the EU, but at least they had the sense to draw back from such action. It is regrettable that, by pursuing the approach they have, the Government have placed Kenya and the EAC in such a difficult position.

Secondly, I hope that the Minister will be able to tell us more about the Government’s overall approach to trade agreements with developing countries. Many of us have been concerned about the approach that the EU took in the past to developing countries. The Minister may be aware of the APPG for Africa’s excellent report on the lessons learned from the EU EPAs with Africa; that report raises a number of issues, including the constraints that they place on development policy space for African countries. I hope that the Minister can address those points.