UK-India Trade Deal

Jerome Mayhew Excerpts

Wednesday 26th October 2022 Commons Chamber

[Greg Hands]

We take an ongoing interest in the ability of our citizens to travel abroad and to access other countries. However, I stress again that a trade negotiation covers what is called mode 4, which relates to the movement of people—in other words, business visas. I am confident that we can get a good deal with India when it comes to mode 4.

[Jerome Mayhew (Broadland) (Con)]

Does my right hon. Friend agree that this is an exciting opportunity to help unlock the economic potential of the living bridge that Prime Minister Modi has recently described? As for the notional timeline of Diwali, does he also agree that getting the right deal is much more important than getting any deal?

[Greg Hands]

My hon. Friend is right. We have a brilliant diaspora community in this country. I was delighted to celebrate Diwali—a little bit early—last week with the India Global Forum. That was a really telling example of the strength of the diaspora deal. He is also right that the content, the depth and breadth of the deal are more important than the data that it delivers. That is the case for all trade negotiations. It is a matter not of getting a quick deal, but of getting the best deal for Britain, which is exactly what we have done with Japan, exactly what we have done with Australia and exactly what we have done with New Zealand.

Protecting Britain’s Steel Industry

Jerome Mayhew Excerpts

Monday 21st June 2021 Commons Chamber

[Jerome Mayhew (Broadland) (Con)]

The TRA’s sole function is to look at data and decide whether to impose trade restrictions to protect the UK steel market from unforeseen surges of imports to ensure fair trade. It is not there to put up protectionist barriers to international trade. Its recommendations are based on detailed research into the UK steel market. So it is not so much the data that Labour challenges—as was made clear earlier this evening, it is the terms of reference given to the TRA. Let us be clear: Labour wants to move to outright protectionism.

Extending tariffs that are not justified by the data shifts the debate from ensuring fair competition, which drives long-term economic growth and prosperity, to outright protectionism, which corrodes markets and makes us all poorer. That is particularly the case with a foundation product such as steel. Labour wants to put up the price of steel for all the manufacturers of the United Kingdom, making their products more expensive and then less competitive. What does Labour suggest when they struggle against cheaper imports—more protectionism? Even its current proposal is so extreme that it would require us to leave the World Trade Organisation. What next? These are the economics of the Soviet Union.

The Government are right to focus on defending fair competition while supporting our steel industry to adopt low-carbon energy sources as we move toward renewable supplies, supporting our producers to the tune of £500 million since 2013 so that our cleaner energy does not disadvantage them. In the long run though, we need to move away from clumsy and expensive state support. Rather than costing our Treasury money to compensate industry, a carbon border adjustment mechanism would raise income from high-carbon imports, providing funds to invest in our own decarbonisation plans. Those are supports that can work within WTO rules, not in flagrant breach of them, as Labour wants.

No longer will our exports be penalised by relatively high energy costs or be undercut in our domestic market by dirty imports. Such a mechanism will allow us to price carbon realistically, unleashing the power of the free market to nose out lower-carbon alternatives as part of the unending price war that real competition brings. That is the kind of policy framework that a serious Opposition would be proposing. If the right hon. and learned Member for Holborn and St Pancras (Keir Starmer) wants to modernise the Labour party, he should start with the Soviet dinosaurs in his BEIS team.

Oral Answers to Questions

Jerome Mayhew Excerpts

Thursday 3rd September 2020 Commons Chamber

[Steve Double (St Austell and Newquay) (Con)]

What steps her Department is taking to help the food and farming sector recover from the covid-19 pandemic.

[Jerome Mayhew (Broadland) (Con)]

What steps her Department is taking to help the food and farming sector recover from the covid-19 pandemic.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Trade (Graham Stuart)]

The agriculture, food and drink sector is the UK’s largest manufacturing industry and supports about 4 million jobs. With exports worth £23.8 billion last year, we are determined to see this success continue. So on 22 June, alongside the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and business, I was delighted to launch an agriculture, food and drink bounce-back plan to drive exports and recovery from covid.

--- Later in debate ---

[Graham Stuart]

The bounce-back package, as I say, was launched in June. It facilitates additional access for small businesses’ products to UK Export Finance. It launched a suite of export masterclasses and webinars to overcome some of the lack of understanding of opportunities in foreign markets and of the challenges that are faced in entering them. It will further boost our trade efforts ahead of new opportunities that will also be presented by our FTAs.

Already, a series of over 20 agri-food export masterclasses targeted at small and medium-sized enterprises has been delivered, and that programme will continue throughout this year. My Department is working, through our international trade adviser network, to support my hon. Friend’s local Cornish food and drink companies to access virtual meet-the-buyer events and UKAP—United Kingdom agricultural policy—webinars, which will be launched in the autumn and come out of the plan that we worked with industry to create.

[Jerome Mayhew]

We all recognise that a free trade agreement with the United States of America has enormous potential to benefit UK farming, not least by opening up a market of 328 million potential customers, but it does come with some risks, not least the potential import of clinically safe but lower food standard meat products. Will my hon. Friend update the House on what success he is having in maximising the benefits and minimising those risks?

[Graham Stuart]

As the Secretary of State has made clear—sufficiently slowly, I hope, for the Scottish National party spokesman—all existing food standards are enshrined in UK law and no trade deal will be able to change that legal position. I can assure my hon. Friend that those standards will be maintained, and I hope that his constituents are not alarmed by the consistent scare- mongering from Opposition parties.

I am delighted to say that we will see beef shipping to the United States imminently. It is worth noting that at the moment there are no lamb sales into the US, which is the second largest importer of lamb in the world. These are the prizes that we are after; these are the prizes that we are delivering.