Oral Answers to Questions

Henry Smith Excerpts

Thursday 15th July 2021 Commons Chamber

[Ms Nusrat Ghani (Wealden) (Con)]

What recent progress she has made with her G7 counterparts on advocating for free and fair trade throughout world.

[Henry Smith (Crawley) (Con)]

What recent progress she has made with her G7 counterparts on advocating for free and fair trade throughout world.

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

At the May Trade Ministers’ meeting, we committed to a global trading system with open markets that are not undermined by unfair trade. We agreed to work together to reform the global trading system to be free and fair for all.

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[Henry Smith [V]]

I welcome the work that my right hon. Friend is doing with her G7 counterparts to reform global trading and encourage a rules-based multilateral trading system. Does she agree that a free and fair trading system will help countries, including the UK, to build back better from the covid-19 pandemic as part of a strong economic recovery?

[Elizabeth Truss]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. There has been a worrying rise in protectionism in recent years and I am proud that the UK is leading the way in liberalising trade, striking new free trade deals to bring more jobs and growth as we seek to build back better after covid. At the same time, we are defending UK industry against unfair practices.

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[Greg Hands]

We will be responding in due course to the call for input on going further on a trade deal with Canada, and we are looking forward to that negotiation starting in the autumn. I would remind the hon. Member that there are no ISDS provisions in the UK-Australia deal, but I would also remind her that the UK has never lost an ISDS case. We do have ISDS provisions in quite a number of our existing agreements, and the UK has never lost any such case.

[Henry Smith (Crawley) (Con) [V]]

  Does my right hon. Friend agree that it is thanks to UK Export Finance reacting so quickly to the economic challenges of the covid-19 pandemic with the full backing of the Treasury that it was able to help some 549 companies and all their suppliers sell to 77 countries around the world last year?

[Graham Stuart]

I thank my hon. Friend for his excellent question. I am tremendously proud of UK Export Finance and its staff for the innovative way in which they have responded to the pandemic, with the record level—more than £12 billion—given to UK businesses supporting more than 100,000 jobs up and down the country. Behind those 549 companies, of course, stand 10,000 or more supply chain companies. UKEF, at no cost to the taxpayer, makes an enormous difference to the prosperity and success of this country.