Glyn Davies
Main Page: Glyn Davies (Conservative - Montgomeryshire)Department Debates - View all Glyn Davies's debates with the Department for Education
(11 years, 9 months ago)
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Glyn Davies (Montgomeryshire) (Con)
1. What progress his Department has made on developing trade links with non-European Union countries.
The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (Vince Cable)
We have increased UK Trade & Investment’s focus on growth markets and we are championing ambitious EU trade agreements to help stimulate an export-led recovery. Over three years, our goods exports to Brazil are up by half; to India, by over half; to China, they have almost doubled; and to Russia, they are up by 130%.
Glyn Davies
We learned yesterday from Office for Budget Responsibility figures that the eurozone economy shrank by 0.6% in the last quarter, and the economies of the United States and Japan are flat. Does my right hon. Friend agree that if we are to return to sustained growth in the United Kingdom, we have to increase the business we do with high-growth economies such as Brazil, Russia, China and India?
Vince Cable
Yes, I absolutely agree. The Prime Minister and I, and other Ministers, spend a lot of our time trying to develop exports in these growth markets and to attract inward investment from them; that is clearly where the growth is. That does not mean that the EU market is not important; it clearly is, and that is why we are pressing for improvements to the single market.