Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Thursday 20th January 2022 Commons Chamber

[Anne-Marie Trevelyan]

The UK has secured a range of measures to safeguard our farmers, including tariff-rate quotas for a number of sensitive agricultural products, product-specific safeguards for beef and sheep meat, and a general bilateral safeguard mechanism providing a temporary safety net if an industry faces serious injury from increased imports as a direct consequence of the agreement. The NFU, Salmon Scotland and the Scotch Whisky Association are trade advisory group members which were consulted throughout negotiations and regular meetings, and we will continue to engage with the NFU and other Scottish agricultural bodies to understand the impact on the industry.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

Following on from that, the Government’s own impact assessment shows a £94 million hit to farming, forestry and fishing sectors, and a £225 million hit to the semi-processed food industry. The Government have also negotiated first-year tariff-free allowances of a 6,000% increase on Australian-imported beef to the UK. Can the Secretary of State outline what conversations that she has had with the NFU, specifically about the impact of that deal on British agriculture?

[Anne-Marie Trevelyan]

We have continual and regular discussions with the NFU and other agriculture bodies. As I have just said, they have been integrally involved in the discussions all the way through, and I know that the ministerial team will continue to meet them. I believe that my Minister responsible for exports will be having a meeting with them next week.

Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Thursday 19th November 2020 Commons Chamber

[Graham Stuart]

There can be no greater or more persistent champion of UK-Pakistan relations than my hon. Friend. The Government remain committed to increasing trade and investment with the Asia-Pacific region. We have signed a free trade agreement with Japan, are negotiating FTAs with Australia and New Zealand and hope to be able to apply for formal accession to the comprehensive and progressive agreement for trans-Pacific partnership, as already discussed. At the end of the transition period, the UK will put in place its own generalised scheme of preferences, and my hon. Friend will be delighted to learn that Pakistan will continue to receive the same market access to the UK next year. The scheme will help British and Pakistani businesses to continue trading seamlessly after we end the transition period.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

What assessment she has made of the potential effect on UK trade policy of the outcome of the 2020 US presidential election.

[Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Slough) (Lab)]

What assessment she has made of the potential effect on UK trade policy of the outcome of the 2020 US presidential election.

--- Later in debate ---

[Andrew Gwynne [V]]

But if the Secretary of State’s global Britain is to mean anything, we must not put all our eggs in one basket. I think it fair to say that, in recent times, the Secretary of State has bet everything on securing a trade deal with the Trump Administration. She might want to conclude a deal with Canada, but the Prime Minister there said that the Secretary of State had lacked the “bandwidth” to focus on getting a deal with his country. Does she intend to ignore that criticism and continue making a deal with the US her dominant priority? If so, what confidence does she have that the Biden Administration will feel the same way in terms of their own priorities for trade?

[Elizabeth Truss]

We have now secured trade deals with 52 countries. We have secured a deal with Japan that goes beyond and above the EU’s agreements, we are working on accession to the trans-Pacific partnership and we are negotiating with Australia and New Zealand, so we are by no means entirely focused on the US, but it is our largest single country trading partner. I am always struck by the anti-Americanism among Opposition Members. They simply do not understand that these deals are incredibly important for British business. As for the comments from overseas Governments on our trade negotiations, it is interesting that Labour Members simply like to repeat their “lines to take”. Maybe they need to think of some of their own ideas.

Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Thursday 8th October 2020 Commons Chamber

[Rob Roberts (Delyn) (Con)]

What assessment she has made of the potential effect on farmers and food producers of the free trade agreement with Japan.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

What steps she is taking to maintain the UK’s (a) food and (b) animal welfare standards in future free trade agreements.

[The Secretary of State for International Trade (Elizabeth Truss)]

The deal with Japan will go further and faster than we had under the EU, including by increasing the number of geographical indications from seven in the EU-Japan deal to up to 70 in our new agreement, from Cornish clotted cream to Scotch beef. Furthermore, Japan has guaranteed market access for UK malt exports under an existing quota, which is more generous and easier to access than the EU quota.

--- Later in debate ---

[Elizabeth Truss]

Welsh lamb is some of the best in the world, and in the new Japan trade deal, Welsh lamb will be recognised as a GI for the first time. We got our first Welsh and British lamb into Japan for over 20 years last year, opening up a market worth £52 million. My next target is to get the ban on lamb removed in the United States, which would be a huge market. The US is the second largest lamb importer in the world.

[Andrew Gwynne [V]]

I was interested to read that the members of the Trade and Agriculture Commission were calling for parliamentary scrutiny on all future trade deals. The head of the Government’s Food Commission has said the same, so can the Secretary of State show that she is listening to her advisers by guaranteeing this House of Commons a debate and a vote in Government time on any trade deal with the USA?

[Elizabeth Truss]

I can confirm that we will have a world-leading scrutiny process, comparable with Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. That will mean the International Trade Committee scrutinising a signed version of the deal and producing a report to Parliament, a debate taking place and then, through the CRaG—the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010—process, Parliament can block any trade deal if it is not happy with it.

Gender Recognition Act Consultation

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Thursday 24th September 2020 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss]

My hon. Friend is right that we are striking a balance between the rights of transgender people and the rights of women. The position is clear in the Equality Act that service providers can restrict the use of spaces on the basis of biological sex, and it is important that women’s spaces, which have been hard fought for over generations, are protected.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab) [V]]

In her written statement on Tuesday, the Minister stated that she wanted

“transgender people to be free to live and to prosper in a modern Britain”,

but between 2013-14 and 2017-18, recorded anti-trans hate crimes nearly trebled. What steps are she and her Government taking to tackle the discrimination, abuse and hate crimes that many trans people experience?

[Elizabeth Truss]

These crimes are appalling, and that is why the Home Office is taking very strong action to address them.

Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (Accession)

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Wednesday 17th June 2020 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss]

Japan is a very important partner of the UK, and we are separately negotiating our bilateral trade agreement, but when I spoke to Minister Motegi, who is responsible for negotiating on Japan’s behalf, he was very clear that he supported the UK’s accession to CPTPP. We are also pursuing accession with Australia and New Zealand. These bilateral partnerships are a way of accessing that wider arrangement in Asia- Pacific. My hon. Friend is right—there are huge export opportunities for Britain into Japan and huge investment opportunities for British firms into Japan and for Japanese firms into the UK.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab) [V]]

I too welcome the negotiations the Secretary of State has announced with Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand is an interesting case, because CPTPP includes provisions for an investor-state dispute settlement, allowing major corporations to challenge the ability of Governments to regulate in areas such as environmental protection. Will she follow the example of New Zealand and seek to exclude the UK from this mechanism?

[Elizabeth Truss]

In the negotiations, we are very clear that we will not allow any agreement to interfere with our right to regulate in areas such as the environment, food standards and public services such as the national health service. That is a clear red line for us.

Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Tuesday 12th May 2020 Commons Chamber

[Christian Wakeford (Bury South) (Con)]

What support his Department has provided to veterans during the covid-19 outbreak.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

What support his Department is providing for veterans during the covid-19 outbreak.

[Paula Barker (Liverpool, Wavertree) (Lab)]

What support his Department is providing for veterans during the covid-19 outbreak.

--- Later in debate ---

[Johnny Mercer [V]]

I thank my hon. Friend for his question. I am afraid he may be slightly misinformed; we have not missed any payments. We made 470,000 payments last month. Veterans’ care has not been suspended in the UK. We have, as the Secretary of State alluded to earlier, changed the way we provide services, but I am unaware of a single veteran currently in the care of Veterans UK who has not had their need met during this time.

[Andrew Gwynne [V]]

But that is not good enough. Other Departments and businesses have found ways of operating call centres safely, so at a time when the nation has been awed by the efforts of Captain Tom Moore, why has the Ministry of Defence closed its vital Veterans UK helpline—the telephone service? It is not good enough.

[Johnny Mercer]

I am certainly not going to take lectures on what is and is not good enough from a Labour party whose veterans’ care I experienced over a number of years. No services have been closed. We have changed the way of doing business. Clearly we cannot do new face-to-face consultations at this time. Again, I reiterate that not a single veteran in the care of Veterans UK has had their needs unmet at this time. I would caution Members against politicising what is clearly a very important issue.