Northern Ireland Protocol Bill

Debate between Elizabeth Truss and Aaron Bell

2nd reading
Monday 27th June 2022 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss]

We have published our Government legal statement, which clearly states the reasons why this Bill is legal and the necessity of pursuing this Bill. I return to my point about the lack of alternatives being proposed by the Opposition. We have exhausted all the other avenues, and this remains the course of action that is actually going to deliver for the people of Northern Ireland and re-establish the institutions.

[Aaron Bell (Newcastle-under-Lyme) (Con)]

There is a lot of talk about international law, but can I take the Foreign Secretary to paragraph 3 of article 2 of the UN charter? It says:

“All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered.”

That is incumbent on us and the EU, and the EU needs to engage with us and negotiate so that peace is not threatened.

[Elizabeth Truss]

My hon. Friend is right. It is very clear from the legal advice that one of the issues is that the EU will not change the text of the protocol even though, when the protocol was negotiated, it was very clear that it was not set in stone and should be subject to change because of the very unique situation in Northern Ireland.

We are very clear that there are elements of the protocol that are working and that we do want to maintain. We will maintain the conditions for north-south co-operation and trade, and uphold the common travel area. We will maintain the functioning of the single electricity market, which benefits both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

The Bill provides specific powers to implement technical regulations as part of our solution, and today we launched a consultation with businesses to make sure that the way it is implemented works for the people of business in Northern Ireland. We will continue consulting with businesses and the EU over the coming weeks to make sure that the implementation works.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Elizabeth Truss and Aaron Bell

Tuesday 8th March 2022 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss]

What is happening in Ukraine is simply abhorrent. Our current priority is supporting Ukraine through humanitarian aid. We are donating £220 million of humanitarian aid, which is the leading figure in the world. That will be used to save lives and protect vulnerable people. However, I will listen to my hon. Friend’s suggestion and see what we can do on that front, because we need to do all we can to address this horrendous humanitarian crisis.

[Aaron Bell]

I know that my right hon. Friend is as proud as I am that the sanctions on Russia that we have introduced to try to support Ukraine are the most powerful we have ever introduced in history. Does she agree that we may need to go further and that nothing should be off the table in terms of who or what we target? We need to do whatever it takes to cripple the Putin regime.

[Elizabeth Truss]

My hon. Friend is right: nothing is off the table. We have been and are working with G7 partners, whom we want to see go further in areas such as a complete ban on SWIFT and the complete freezing of all bank assets, and by committing to a timetable for reducing dependency on oil and gas because, fundamentally, Russia is a state propped up by the oil and gas industry and, to really tackle the funding for Putin’s war machine, we need to cut off that funding stream.

Free Trade Agreement Negotiations: Australia

Debate between Elizabeth Truss and Aaron Bell

Thursday 17th June 2021 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss]

What a welcome voice from the Opposition Benches! If only the right hon. Gentleman could be promoted to a position on the Front Bench—[Hon. Members: “Make him leader!”] Or even leader; that is a good idea. If that happened, we might see a more sensible, pro-growth, pro-trade policy on the Opposition Benches. It seems to me that the only group the Opposition want us to do a deal with is the EU. In fact, they want us to rejoin the EU. That is the strong message I am getting from the Opposition.

[Aaron Bell (Newcastle-under-Lyme) (Con)]

I thank the Secretary of State for her statement and congratulate her and her team on this achievement. The point about free trade, as she said in her statement, is that it is not a zero-sum game; it can be a win-win for us and for Australia, and for exporters such as the ceramics firms in neighbouring Stoke-on-Trent and for consumers such as my constituents in Newcastle-under-Lyme. Can she confirm that, through this deal, Aussie favourites such as wine—including Jacob’s Creek and Hardy’s—swimwear and confectionery will be a much cheaper and that there will be more choice for British consumers, saving more than £34 million in year one?

[Elizabeth Truss]

My hon. Friend is right. The idea that a free trade deal is simply about who wins and who loses is completely wrong. The whole point is that Australia is an old friend of the United Kingdom and we want to trade more with each other. We want to give opportunities for our young people in both countries. We want to give opportunities for our exporters and thus, all of us can become more successful, have more jobs and more growth in every local area, from ceramics to all the other industries, as well as being able to get their hands on those fantastic Australian goods such as swimwear and Tim Tams and, of course, Australian wine, which I have been drinking quite a lot of this week.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Elizabeth Truss and Aaron Bell

Wednesday 10th February 2021 Commons Chamber

[Aaron Bell (Newcastle-under-Lyme) (Con)]

What steps she is taking to ensure that her policies are informed by robust evidence.

[The Minister for Women and Equalities (Elizabeth Truss)]

We must have an equality agenda that is driven by the evidence. That is why we have launched an equality data programme, looking at the life paths of individuals across the country and ensuring that we have hard data about the barriers that people face, whether in education, employment or accessing capital for business.

[Aaron Bell [V]]

I thank the Minister for her answer. Like her, I welcome the importance of data in all this. I also welcome the fact that last year the Government Equalities Office commissioned the Behavioural Insights Team to produce a summary of the evidence on unconscious bias training. As she will know, the report highlighted that there was no evidence that this training changed behaviour in the long term, nor did it improve workplace equality. It also stated that there is emerging evidence of unintended negative consequences. So I am glad that the Government are phasing it out in the civil service and that this House is doing the same, but can she assure me and the House that any suggested replacement for this training must be supported by the evidence of what works?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Elizabeth Truss and Aaron Bell

Thursday 14th January 2021 Commons Chamber

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

We have made good progress, and we are about to go into the third round of talks with Australia next month. I will be speaking to my counterpart, Dan Tehan, next week in advance of that, and we will be fighting to cut tariffs on vital British goods such as ceramics, which face a 5% tariff into Australia.

[Aaron Bell [V]]

I thank my right hon. Friend for her answer and for everything that she and her team, and her negotiators, did last year to get continuity trade agreements for Newcastle-under-Lyme exporters such as Doulton Water Filters, which I met shortly before Christmas. For all our exporters, will my right hon. Friend set out how an agreement with Australia would also facilitate our accession to the CPTPP, which is one of the most vibrant markets in the world and would give us even more opportunities in the future?

[Elizabeth Truss]

A deal with Australia will be another important step towards CPTPP, where we will be negotiating a market access schedule with Australia. It is a high-standards, rules-based agreement covering £9 trillion of GDP and, importantly, it removes tariffs on 95% of goods. It has a strong data and digital chapter and it will mean more opportunities for exporters in Newcastle-under-Lyme.

UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement

Debate between Elizabeth Truss and Aaron Bell

Wednesday 25th November 2020 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss]

We had a major success in 2019 when we gained access for British lamb into the Japanese market, and, of course, one of the products that is flowing into Japan is our fantastic Welsh lamb.

This agreement is not just about economics, but about our close relationship with Japan and the Japanese. Together we are helping to set the standard for trade in the 21st century. That does not come as a surprise, because our relationship with Japan is deep and long standing. Way back in 1613, King James I concluded the UK’s first trade agreement with Japan. Under Queen Victoria, a treaty of peace, friendship and commerce was signed in 1858. We see that friendship endure under Japan’s current Emperor Naruhito, who has written fondly of his time studying at Oxford. We continue to benefit from Japanese commerce after Margaret Thatcher opened the door to new investment from companies such as Nissan, supporting local jobs and communities.

[Aaron Bell (Newcastle-under-Lyme) (Con)]

A fortnight ago, I was delighted to receive an email from the embassy of Japan, informing me that my constituency of Newcastle-under-Lyme will receive 30 of the cherry trees that it agreed to donate to the United Kingdom. That was agreed in 2017, as part of the prosperity agreement, but it is a real symbol of what we are now doing with Japan in this trade deal. I compliment the Japanese Government and my right hon. Friend’s Department for all they have done.

[Elizabeth Truss]

I thank my hon. Friend. Our relationship with Japan is going from strength to strength. Japan and the United Kingdom are two great island nations, but we are not insular in our embrace of freedom, democracy, human rights and free trade, and we will be working together when the UK has the presidency of the G7 next year to advance on all these fronts and to champion much-needed reform of the global rules for services and digital trade.

Next year, Japan will chair the comprehensive and progressive trans-Pacific partnership, a high-standards agreement that promotes the values that we believe in for rules-based free trade. The CEPA secures Japan’s support for our joining that club and will provide further market access under that agreement. This agreement will turbocharge our trade with dynamic members from Canada and Australia to Chile and Peru. The CPTPP is more than the sum of its parts, because we gain access to a free trade area with common standards and rules of origin, which means flexibility and opportunities, but, unlike with the EU, we retain control of our borders, our laws and our money.

This huge gateway to the Pacific region will help us unleash our potential as a global hub for services and technology trade. On joining CPTPP, global Britain would have unprecedented and deep access to markets covering 13% of the world’s GDP, which equates to more than £11 trillion in some of the world’s fastest growing markets. If we add in the US, this would amount to over 40% of the world’s GDP, which equates to more than £27 trillion.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Elizabeth Truss and Aaron Bell

Thursday 5th March 2020 Commons Chamber

[Aaron Bell (Newcastle-under-Lyme) (Con)]

1. What recent assessment she has made of the potential economic benefits to manufacturing industries of a free trade agreement with the US.

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

A free trade agreement with the US could deliver a £15 billion increase in bilateral trade, increase manufacturing output and benefit all parts of the UK economy, particularly the midlands, Scotland and the north-east.

[Aaron Bell]

I thank the Secretary of State for that answer, and for the scale of the Government’s ambitions for the trade deal. In Newcastle-under-Lyme we have a number of firms that have US subsidiaries or sister companies, or that themselves have US parent companies. Can she confirm that a comprehensive UK-US trade deal would benefit such firms by cutting red tape and increasing the trading ties between our two countries?

[Elizabeth Truss]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right; every morning more than 1 million people in Britain get up and go to work for American firms, and more than 1 million people in the US go to work for British firms. We want a closer economic relationship so that we can share ideas, products and goods, to the benefit of both nations.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Elizabeth Truss and Aaron Bell

Thursday 23rd January 2020 Commons Chamber

[Aaron Bell (Newcastle-under-Lyme) (Con)]

4. What steps she is taking to ensure that most favoured nation tariffs support UK manufacturing industries after the UK leaves the EU.

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

We are developing our own most favoured nation tariff schedule, ensuring that it is right for the UK. We want costs kept low for consumers and to ensure UK manufacturers are not disadvantaged against their competitors.

[Aaron Bell]

I thank the Secretary of State for her answer and for visiting me and my colleagues in Stoke-on-Trent last Friday. For industries such as ceramics and businesses such as Ibstock Brick in my constituency, which has two sites—at Chesterton and Parkhouse—does she agree that it is essential that we put in a robust regime of tariffs when we have countries that do not respect the rules-based order and threaten to flood our market with dumped or subsidised products?

[Elizabeth Truss]

One of our aims in a US trade deal will be to bring down the tariffs on ceramics. When I was in Stoke-on-Trent, I heard that those producers face a tariff of 28% on their fantastic crockery. We want to bring that down so that we can have more jobs in Stoke-on-Trent. We will also establish the trade remedies authority, which will take a tough line on dumping from the anti-competitive activities of other nations.

--- Later in debate ---

[Elizabeth Truss]

I believe that the UK has a huge opportunity to promote clean energy and our climate change agenda—our carbon reduction agenda—across the world. Yesterday I met the New Zealand Trade Minister to discuss how we can work together in the future to incorporate those into forward-leaning trade agreements. We will seek to do that with the US, the EU, and all the other partners with which we work.

[Aaron Bell (Newcastle-under-Lyme) (Con)]

T5. In the light of the very welcome UK-Africa investment summit, what assessment has the Minister made of the commercial opportunities for British firms across the whole of that great continent?