G20 Summit

James Cleverly Excerpts

Monday 3rd December 2018 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I certainly had a number of conversations about exactly the point of maintaining the international rules-based order. We recognise that in a number of different areas this is under significant pressure, but we have been leading in some areas to ensure that it continues, not least, of course, in the work we have done in the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

[James Cleverly (Braintree) (Con)]

Among the members of the G20 are some countries that were in crushing poverty only a few decades ago. Will the Prime Minister reject the calls to move away from liberal free market economics and instead promote that as an agenda, removing tariff barriers imposed by wealthy countries and using free trade to lift other poor nations and people around the world out of that poverty?

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right; it is trade that develops economies, helps to lift poor countries out of their poverty and helps to provide for people in those countries. One of the points I made at the summit was that the increasing protectionism we see—the increasing pressure on the rules-based international order in relation to trade—will only hit the poorest hardest.