EU: UK Balance of Trade

Lord Hamilton of Epsom Excerpts

Wednesday 14th November 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Warsi]

It may well be that the noble Lord’s understanding of history and circumstances is very different from mine. From what I recall—and I am sure many Members of the House would agree—if anybody deserves great credit for fighting the great campaign to keep us out of the euro, it is my current boss, my right honourable friend the Foreign Secretary.

[Lord Hamilton of Epsom]

My noble friend told the House that 45% of our exports go to the EU. However, if quite a bit of that 45% is going to Antwerp and Rotterdam for onward shipment to countries outside the EU, would she accept that the 45% figure is not accurate?

[Baroness Warsi]

There is some writing on this as to whether the statistics are accurate because of the “Antwerp effect” where goods are actually for another destination but show that they are passing to Europe. I asked officials specifically about this matter and they informed me that the information they have from BIS is that the ONS does record the final destination. However, I cannot be specific as to how accurate these figures are.