UK-EU Trade: Small and Medium-sized Enterprises

Debate between Lord Offord of Garvel and Baroness Meacher

Wednesday 31st January 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Offord of Garvel (Con)]

I thank the noble Lord for that stat-fest. I said yesterday that the most difficult part of the pie chart is the 24% of our manufactured goods to the EU 27, but the other 70% is increasing in particular services, which have gone up by 19% over the last five years, relative to inflation. That is why I said that the rest of our exports are trading very well.

[Baroness Meacher (CB)]

My Lords, will the Minister reassure the House that we will now spend far more time working with the European Union to enhance our trade with our closest trading neighbours, particularly bearing in mind that the EU represents a pretty high proportion of our trade?

[Lord Offord of Garvel (Con)]

I can absolutely assure the noble Baroness of that. My DBT colleague in the other place, Minister Hands, is putting a huge amount of effort into breaking down these barriers with individual European countries, getting faster access and getting rid of the friction in Europe.