Trade Talks with India, Greenland and Israel

Debate between Lord Wallace of Saltaire and Lord Grimstone of Boscobel

Wednesday 9th March 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Grimstone of Boscobel (Con)]

My Lords, “churlish” is an adjective that I would never like to apply to the noble Baroness. I think I have made our attitude towards scrutiny of free trade agreements very clear. Of course, I will draw to the attention of my colleagues in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office her comments on other treaties and agreements.

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire (LD)]

My Lords, it is very encouraging to hear that we are now negotiating with Greenland. Can the Minister tell us what British export sectors will benefit most from a trade agreement with Greenland, and does he think that that will help in a significant way to counterbalance the deterioration of our trade with the European continent?

[Lord Grimstone of Boscobel (Con)]

My Lords, I am very happy to deal with that. Greenland is an important exporter of seafood to the UK, accounting for 40% of the total value of UK imports of cold-water prawns in 2020. For those who enjoy their prawn cocktails, I can think of no better statistic.

Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership

Debate between Lord Wallace of Saltaire and Lord Grimstone of Boscobel

Tuesday 15th December 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Grimstone of Boscobel (Con)]

My Lords, because we have no intention of joining RCEP at present, we have made no assessment of its effect on climate change.

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire (LD) [V]]

My Lords, is it compatible with Britain’s sovereignty to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership? We have just re-established our sovereignty by sloughing off the multilateral agreements we have made, which clearly share sovereignty with the European Union, so why on earth are this Government considering going into other multilateral agreements in which we will have to share some of our sovereignty with others, whichever countries they are? I am very glad that they do not include China.

[Lord Grimstone of Boscobel (Con)]

My Lords, UK accession to the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement would secure increased trade and investment opportunities and help us diversify our trading links, and we believe that that would be to the benefit of the United Kingdom.

Canada-UK Trade Deal

Debate between Lord Wallace of Saltaire and Lord Grimstone of Boscobel

Tuesday 17th November 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the comments by the Prime Minister of Canada on 11 November about the United Kingdom’s prospects of a trade deal with Canada.

[The Minister of State, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and Department for International Trade (Lord Grimstone of Boscobel) (Con)]

My Lords, both the UK and Canada remain committed to a seamless transition of our trading relationship at the end of the transition period, so that British and Canadian businesses and consumers can continue to benefit. Officials have been in regular contact to discuss this and the Government are hopeful of securing agreement by the end of this year.

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire (LD) [V]]

My Lords, in August 2018, the Canadian Prime Minister said that the Canadians would be ready to start negotiations on what he thought would be a very easy roll-on agreement the day that Britain left the European Union—which was last January. He also offered to second Canadian officials to help us if that would improve matters. Here we are, six weeks before the end of the transition, and the agreement has not yet been fixed. Can the Minister explain why?

[Lord Grimstone of Boscobel (Con)]

My Lords, I can explain exactly why. Agreement was almost reached with Canada in March 2019, but Canada did not like the temporary tariff reductions that we brought in and decided to walk away from the negotiating table, returning only in July this year.