Draft Inter-American Investment Corporation (Immunities and Privileges) Order 2022

Fabian Hamilton Excerpts

Tuesday 8th November 2022 General Committees

[Fabian Hamilton (Leeds North East) (Lab)]

It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Mr Gray.

We welcome the SI, which approves IDB Invest and its immunities and privileges, and we welcome closer engagement with Latin America and the Caribbean. The economic prosperity of our partners is very important to our country and the stability it brings to the region also provides geopolitical security to that part of the world. As we know, however, many countries across Latin America and the Caribbean face pressing humanitarian crises. One of the most prominent of those is in Haiti, where the functionality of the Government has all but failed and criminal gangs control large parts of the country.

Haiti is one of the countries that will be able to borrow from the Inter-American Development Bank. Following the assassination of President Moïse last year, it is essential that political and economic stability is returned to the Haitian people. I think it is therefore very urgent that the international community comes together, working through institutions such as the Inter-American Development Bank, and IDB Invest, to ensure that Haiti is able to carry out free and fair elections to establish a long-lasting permanent Government. With that in mind, I would like to ask the Minister whether he can tell us, based on the UK’s involvement, how much money is being provided to Haiti to deal with the cholera outbreak and the impacts of criminal gangs? As Haiti’s debt was cancelled after the 2020 earthquake, and more than $2.2 billion was provided in grants from the bank up to 2020, it is really important that the institution urgently acts again to fund Haiti’s long-term political and economic development plans.

[The Chair]

If the hon. Gentleman will allow me, I am listening with great interest to his remarks, but they bear very little relationship, or only a peripheral relationship, to the SI being considered. He perhaps might want to return to the instrument that we are discussing.

[Fabian Hamilton]

Thank you for that guidance, Mr Gray. I suppose the reason I believe they do bear relevance, and obviously I will be guided by you in the Chair, is that IDB Invest will have a substantial impact on the economic development and the resolution of the crises of many of the affected countries, which will be able to borrow from the bank and are able to receive from it. I can cut the rest of my speech out, if you wish, Mr Gray, and just ask the questions.

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

While my hon. Friend is thinking about that, and I am sorry that I was slightly late because I was talking to some constituents outside, could we know where the sources of the money for the investment comes from? I have done a lot of work with the World Bank and the World Health Organisation, and what always worries me is that they do not actually have any money. They have to get money from elsewhere.

[Fabian Hamilton]

My hon. Friend makes a very good point. As the Minister has said, it is a multilateral organisation, and we are part of it. The SI is really designed to approve IDB Invest and of course the immunities and privileges granted to the British citizens who work for it. Without further analysis or research, I cannot answer my hon. Friend’s question directly, but I know that many countries are involved in raising the finance necessary. And that finance is necessary.

I was going to mention, and I will just gloss over it if the Chair will permit me, the effect on the Bahamas of Hurricane Dorian, which struck at the end of August and during the first half of September in 2019. I spoke to people from there just last Thursday, and those effects have been devastating. The bank and its investment branch will have the ability to invest in the economy of the Bahamas to bring it back into credit, because at the moment its debt burden is 105% of its GDP, which of course is unsustainable. I hope that what we are doing today will ensure that development and inward investment can be given to the Bahamas by that essential organisation.

The explanatory memorandum to the SI states:

“The IIC currently provides around $6 bn of annual finance to businesses within Latin America, with a focus on small-and-medium-sized enterprises. Once the UK becomes a member of IIC we will be able to work with other shareholders and the Bank to influence the allocation of this finance to align with UK priorities, with a policy goal of facilitating development finance and bolstering sustainable growth.”

With the issues that I have described in mind, could the Minister tell us what are the specific priorities of the Government in Latin America and the Caribbean and whether there are any plans to update or review the Debt Relief (Developing Countries) Act 2010?

Finally, I should like to raise the growing influence of China in the region, but if you feel that is not necessary, Mr Gray, obviously I will not.

[The Chair]

No.

[Fabian Hamilton]

Except to say that China is a member—

[The Chair]

It bears no relationship of any kind at all to the SI we are discussing. Will you please return to the SI?

[Fabian Hamilton]

Well, China is a member state of the Inter-American Development Bank—

[The Chair]

Order. I think I have been relatively slack, but the fact of the matter is that we are discussing the particular details of the way in which the bank will operate. Of course it would be possible to discuss almost any matter of international interest under that general context, but I think discussing China’s influence in the Caribbean might be stretching it just a shade.

[Fabian Hamilton]

Obviously I will acknowledge and listen to your guidance, Mr Gray.

[Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Brighton, Kemptown) (Lab/Co-op)]

I am interested in the idea of giving specific immunities to staff members of the institution and how that will affect our relationship with China in particular, given that in offering the organisation immunities, one is also offering a shareholder of the bank some level of access. Is there a concern about that?

[Fabian Hamilton]

I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention, and I believe that that is a legitimate question. I know that we are discussing immunities and privileges for UK staff, but do we know whether other countries that are part of the bank and part of IDB Invest also enjoy those immunities? I shall leave it there, Mr Gray.