Oral Answers to Questions

Darren Henry Excerpts

Thursday 25th February 2021 Commons Chamber

[Alexander Stafford (Rother Valley) (Con)]

What recent discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on trade priorities for the UK’s G7 presidency.

[Darren Henry (Broxtowe) (Con)]

What recent discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on trade priorities for the UK’s G7 presidency.

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

The United Kingdom has a huge opportunity, with the presidency of the G7 this year and the election of Dr Ngozi as World Trade Organisation director general, to drive forward free and fair trade. This is more important than ever as we seek to recover from covid and address the issues with the WTO. We hope to make good progress ahead of the ministerial conference in December.

--- Later in debate ---

[Elizabeth Truss]

My hon. Friend makes a very good point. We need to work with allies to make sure we have resilient supply chains of critical minerals and are not reliant on high-risk vendors. That is a priority for this Government, and that is why we are leading Project Defend. I was delighted to see Cornish Lithium for myself on a visit to Cornwall last autumn. Not only will that help us make sure that we have this critical supply of minerals, but it will boost jobs and growth in a very important part of our country.

[Darren Henry [V]]

I welcome the exceptional work done by my right hon. Friend’s Department to ensure that the UK stands as an ambitious internationalist country, and in that regard I would like to know what steps she is taking to improve access for UK exporters to high-growth global markets.