UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement

Anthony Mangnall Excerpts

Wednesday 25th November 2020 Commons Chamber

[Anthony Mangnall (Totnes) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to speak in this debate. I commend the right hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr Carmichael) for his speech. He speaks about fish, and he and I are universally aligned on the need to make sure that export markets are always open and available to our fishermen and that fine British fish is on the dinner table around the rest of the world.

I thank the House, or at least those on the Government side, for putting me on the International Trade Committee, on which it is a pleasure to serve. In the Committee’s most recent two or three sittings, I have had the opportunity to look at some level at the new deal that has been signed with Japan and what we can look forward to in future.

I do take the points that were raised about scrutiny, which are important. My hon. Friend the Member for Tiverton and Honiton (Neil Parish) made the exceptionally important point about the role the Trade and Agriculture Commission is going to have in future trade deals. I represent a constituency with a fine farming background, as well as a vibrant fishing community. We want to be able to make sure that our ag and trade commission is playing the role that it needs to to allow both the Committee and this House to have the full breadth of understanding of what each trade deal is doing before we debate it in the House. I know that Ministers have been competent in assuring us that that will happen.

The hon. Member for Brighton, Kemptown (Lloyd Russell-Moyle) seemed quite happy to say that nothing was quantifiable and then to outline a whole load of figures that he felt were quantifiable just for his argument. Actually, the purpose of the International Trade Committee has been, so far, to look at those deals and scrutinise them in depth. If he is a slow reader, I apologise for that, but we are able to get through those documents. In this case, I do believe that the information that we were given was in good time and good order, and we have had the ability not only to scrutinise the information within this trade deal but to speak to the Secretary of State and to other Ministers and experts on the deal.

The value of this trade deal may easily be able to be seen now and in future in how we develop our relationship with the Japanese, but it should also be seen as a mark of confidence in the faith that they have in this country and its future. It should also be seen as the way in which we can have stronger political co-operation. The ambition to join the CPTPP is a fantastic one. As Japan is due to hold the presidency of that organisation in due course, I think we can look forward to a successful entry into that organisation and the UK playing a role in an enormously important part of the world.

Much of what I wanted to say has already been said. This deal rolls over some of the agreements that Japan had with the EU and that we now have with Japan. As the right hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland said, it protects geographical indicators. It also allows us to look at new export markets across the world. As a vote of confidence in what the UK can achieve both now and outside the European Union, we should look at the Bill for the success that it is, and we should build on the lessons that we have learned from this negotiation to make sure that future trade agreements, say with Canada and elsewhere, are as successful and beneficial to all corners of the United Kingdom.