David Rutley
Main Page: David Rutley (Conservative - Macclesfield)UK Trade and Investment
David Rutley Excerpts(12 years, 9 months ago)
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Mr Wright
I agree. A lot of the work will be done by civil servants, but politicians and leaders of Government are very important. The CBI report states that improvements have been made with regards to political lobbying, but that we have seen the cancellation of trade delegations at very short notice. In contrast, it mentions France, where around 200 high-level trade missions that are focused on 20 primarily high-growth countries are co-ordinated annually with senior politicians. They are well publicised in advance. As a result, in November 2010, a visit to China led by President Sarkozy secured €15 billion in new deals for France.
I think the Prime Minister is still in America. I have noticed that a lot of the talk has been about Afghanistan, Iraq, extradition and basketball—quite rightly, given the circumstances of the past few days. Trade should also have been an important topic. I had a look at the No. 10 website this morning, where the Prime Minister said:
“Barack and I have agreed to prioritise work ahead of the G8 on liberalising transatlantic trade and investment flows.”
However, did the Prime Minister take our business leaders to the White House in his visit to America? Have we won any new deals in the world’s largest economy as a result of what the Prime Minister has done this week? I certainly think he should have done. If he has not, I would respectfully suggest that he has missed a trick, and it shows the culture that needs to be altered in Whitehall.
David Rutley (Macclesfield) (Con)
The hon. Gentleman may have missed press reports last night that said that there was a banquet at the White House in which Sir Richard Branson and other British business leaders were in attendance. That dimension has, to a large extent, been covered.
Mr Wright
I certainly saw reports about Sir Richard Branson being at the event along with George Clooney. My point is this: when the Prime Minister, the leader of our Government, goes out on state visits, what is he doing to win trade for Britain? What is he going to come back with? It is important that he takes a delegation of business leaders and wins awards and contracts for Britain.