Lord Bilimoria
Main Page: Lord Bilimoria (Crossbench - Life peer)
Lord Popat
My Lords, our trade with the European Union, and the deficit of £46 billion, is counterbalanced by our surplus on invisible trade. Our membership of the EU is still in the best interests of the UK. It provides tariff-free access to a market that is worth around £11 trillion and has half a billion customers, and its trade with the UK enables 3.6 million employers in this country.
Lord Bilimoria
My Lords, the EU trade deficit is all very well, but do the Government agree that to tackle our overall trade deficit we should be encouraging exports to countries such as India? I despair to this day that when I ask businesses in this country if they export to India, only a handful of hands go up in an audience of 300. Will the Government consider rolling out the GREAT Britain campaign, which is doing an excellent job in promoting Britain abroad, here in the UK to give our businesses confidence to export to countries such as India?
Lord Popat
My Lords, for the long-term economic health of the UK we need to develop further our economic relations with fast-growing, emerging markets, including India, which the noble Lord mentioned. This is why the Prime Minister has been leading trade missions to these countries. We are doing everything possible to support our trade with emerging markets, including India, but we are also supporting a large number of UK companies, through UKTI, to help them to internationalise and to do more trade with those emerging markets.