UK Trade & Investment

Debate between Chris White and Ian C. Lucas

Tuesday 19th March 2013 Westminster Hall

[Chris White (Warwick and Leamington) (Con)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Enfield North (Nick de Bois) on not only securing the debate, but his comprehensive remarks.

The UK remains the ninth largest manufacturer in the world, but over the past few years, our export performance has been poor. In 2000, our share of world goods exports was 4.4% but, unfortunately, that had fallen to 2.8% by 2009, which is quite shocking. Perhaps that is why so few Labour Members are in the Chamber.

[Ian Lucas (Wrexham) (Lab)]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Chris White]

Unfortunately, I cannot, given the time available.

There are, however, now positive signs of improvement. In contrast to financial services, exports in manufactured goods have risen since the financial crisis. Fortunately, in the period between 2008 and 2011, exports of finished manufactured goods grew by more than 16%.

Ultimately, exports depend on good products and pioneering companies, such as DCA Design International. I will not go through a list, as my hon. Friend the Member for Witham (Priti Patel) did of all the jam makers and so on in her constituency, but my constituency has similar manufacturers.

The Government have a role in supporting businesses to export, and I hope that they will use the upcoming Budget to provide additional resources to UKTI so that it can reach out to even more businesses. The Prime Minister has announced a national challenge for the UK to encourage more small and medium-sized businesses to export, which is essential. As has been mentioned, if the UK exported at the EU average of about 25%, rather than 20%, about £36 billion would be added to the UK economy.

Businesses need support if they are to export, particularly smaller businesses that do not have large teams and resources to enable them to get into such markets. Our competitors in Europe and America see potential growth in the BRIC countries, as has been mentioned, and their Governments seek to provide their companies with every single advantage. That is why collaboration between the Foreign Office and UKTI is so important. The Foreign Secretary has made it clear that he wants British embassies to roll up their sleeves and support British business. We must also ensure that officials have their ear to the ground for new trade opportunities and then feed such information back to UKTI. We need to create a dual hub-and-spoke system, with the UK’s vast diplomatic opportunities feeding back information to UKTI and trade bodies in the UK, while they in turn have their own systems to feed back local information to chambers of commerce and business networks.

The Foreign Secretary has tried to reverse the decline in trade offices in consulates throughout the world, but we need to do more than merely reverse the decline—we need to expand, particularly in the emerging markets I mentioned earlier. Information is crucial in an age in which companies can communicate in minutes and deals can be won or lost through the smallest of delays. In the longer term, we also need to encourage businesses to make personal connections with emerging markets.

As a British Chambers of Commerce survey in 2011 pointed out, contacts are often key for businesses exporting into new markets. Businesses that had employees or directors who had lived abroad were even more successful. However, the most direct way in which we can support British businesses to export is by ensuring that our export products and guarantees are as competitive as possible. The Government should therefore commission a report into the comparative competitiveness of the UK’s export guarantees and credits, and the effectiveness of our institutions such as UKTI, so that we can learn from the success of others, and accordingly improve our own standards and the way in which we work.

Aerospace Industry

Debate between Chris White and Ian C. Lucas

Wednesday 12th September 2012 Westminster Hall

[Ian Lucas]

Absolutely. That is an excellent point. In his new role, I am sure that the Minister will see such examples if he visits those factories and others across the country.

[Chris White (Warwick and Leamington) (Con)]

I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on securing the debate. The aerospace industry is vital for the UK economy. It has thrived through a combination of good management, supportive trade unions and long-term Government support. Does he agree that we should learn lessons from the success of the aerospace industry and draw on them to build a comprehensive industrial policy in Government?

[Ian Lucas]

I agree with everything that the hon. Gentleman says. An important thing that industry and Government can do together is identify deficiencies in the UK and devise policy to address them. Supply chain development has been identified as a difficulty that needs to be addressed in both the automotive and aerospace sectors. I am pleased that the UK aerospace partnership is following that broad structure, which has been successful in the automotive sector. I hope that the successful approach will continue. Will the Minister confirm that he will act as the joint chair of the partnership with Marcus Bryson of GKN? Will that reflect the Government’s commitment to the success of the partnership?

In passing, I should mention that I am grateful to GKN for providing me with an Industry and Parliament Trust fellowship back in, I think, 2003-04. It gave me a great insight not only into the company and the aerospace industry more generally, but into the onset of globalisation, its challenges and the work that a large manufacturing company needs to do to deal with it.

In all my dealings with the aerospace sector, I have been struck by how good it is at engaging with MPs—not only local MPs, but anyone who shows an interest in the industry. It is keen to work with both Government and Back Benchers to extend the appreciation of the industry. The general public still have not got the fact that we are leaders in aerospace—I take part of the blame for that, because I was the Minister for a year—so we need to repeat that fact consistently.

Airbus, which is next to my constituency, has been a great friend to me over many years. AgustaWestland has kept me informed about the exciting developments in the civil helicopter sphere in which it is involved. The ADS group, as a collective organisation, works extremely hard to promote the aerospace industry in the UK.