Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Gavin Newlands and Liam Fox

Thursday 25th April 2019 Commons Chamber

[Gavin Newlands (Paisley and Renfrewshire North) (SNP)]

T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

[The Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade (Dr Liam Fox)]

My Department is responsible for foreign and outward direct investment, establishing an independent trade policy and export promotion. I can announce to the House that UK Export Finance will support an Airbus Defence and Space UK contract worth nearly $500 million to manufacture and deliver two satellites and a ground station for Türksat, Turkey’s communications satellite operator.

May I also, with your indulgence Mr Speaker, thank two civil servants who are leaving my Department? My principal private secretary, Oliver Christian, has been an outstanding civil servant and I congratulate him on his promotion. I also thank Amy Tinley, my outgoing special adviser, who has been a force of nature in my Department and will be widely missed across the whole of the civil service.

[Gavin Newlands]

I congratulate the civil servants on getting out of Dodge while they can.

Scottish Enterprise told the Scottish Affairs Committee that the success of Scotland’s financial industry was based on accessing and servicing all customers in the EU, which it does currently under the free trade non-tariff EU passport system. Does that not highlight once again the vital importance of freedom of movement to Scotland, and that the Secretary of State’s Government simply do not care about Scottish interests or Scotland’s vote to remain?

[Dr Fox]

I will ignore the hon. Gentleman’s lack of grace in his first comment.

What that shows is the importance to Scotland of services and of access to the single market in the United Kingdom. Financial services are one of the country’s greatest and strongest exports, and Scotland benefits hugely from being part of the United Kingdom’s infrastructure.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Gavin Newlands and Liam Fox

Thursday 20th December 2018 Commons Chamber

[Dr Fox]

First, it depends on our level of access to the European market. That is why the Government have put forward proposals to maximise our access to a European trade area. However, it also depends on growth in other markets and, as the International Monetary Fund has said, in the next five years 90% of global growth will be outside continental Europe. That is where the opportunities will be, and that is where Britain needs to be, too.

[Gavin Newlands (Paisley and Renfrewshire North) (SNP)]

4. What proportion of his Department’s staff are supporting businesses that export to the EU in preparation for the UK leaving the EU.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Gavin Newlands and Liam Fox

Thursday 28th June 2018 Commons Chamber

[Dr Fox]

That question was wrong on so many issues that I do not know where to start. Rather than being against countermeasures, the United Kingdom supported the European Union—as I have done several times in this House—in saying that we believed that what the United States did was incompatible with WTO law and that we were therefore against it. And it is the height of cheek to demand that the Government should put members on a board that the Labour party tried to prevent us from establishing in the first place.

[Gavin Newlands (Paisley and Renfrewshire North) (SNP)]

8. If he will take steps to facilitate parliamentary scrutiny of future trade agreements.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Gavin Newlands and Liam Fox

Thursday 23rd March 2017 Commons Chamber

[Gavin Newlands (Paisley and Renfrewshire North) (SNP)]

T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

[The Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade (Dr Liam Fox)]

The Department for International Trade has three tasks: promoting UK exports to support a growing economy that serves the whole country; maximising opportunities for wealth creation, including through overseas direct investment, to support the current account; and negotiating the best international trading framework for the UK outside the EU.

With your permission, Mr Speaker, I would like to acknowledge Sir Martin Donnelly, who leaves our Department after 36 years in the civil service. He is a great and distinguished civil servant who will be very much missed by my Department and more widely.

[Gavin Newlands]

Last weekend, we learned that the Secretary of State’s Department is secretly working on a 10-year transitional arrangement with the EU, based on the WTO general agreement on tariffs and trade. Will he confirm that the Scottish Government and all other devolved Administrations are being consulted so that the interests of all the nations of the UK are represented, should a trade deal not be reached in time?

[Dr Fox]

The Department is not working on a secret agreement with anybody, including the European Union. I think that the hon. Gentleman is referring to press reports about the possible use of WTO rules to ensure a smooth transition at the point when the United Kingdom leaves the European Union.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Gavin Newlands and Liam Fox

Thursday 8th September 2016 Commons Chamber

[Dr Fox]

May I reciprocate by welcoming the hon. Gentleman to another one of his many roles in the House of Commons? Let me be very clear that while we are not able to negotiate in terms of concluding a deal while we are members of the EU, there is nothing to stop us having discussions and scoping out future agreements, and I can announce to the House that as of last week we have now concluded a deal to set up a trade working group with India to look at how we will remove barriers to trade before negotiating a free trade agreement on our exit from the EU.

[Gavin Newlands (Paisley and Renfrewshire North) (SNP)]

2. If he will estimate the potential cost to the economy of trade barriers between the UK and EU countries after the UK has left the EU.