Bombardier

Lord Kilclooney Excerpts

Tuesday 10th October 2017 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

We are talking here about the aerospace sector, but as the noble Lord has broadened this debate, I will say more generally that of course what we are looking for is a tariff-free global trading area. There is no sense in having tariffs put on, because a market is thereby skewed, so we are looking in the future to have a tariff-free approach. Coming back to Boeing, I hope that we can persuade it to withdraw. The US needs to understand too that a tariff-free approach to trade is the way forward.

[Lord Kilclooney (CB)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for repeating the Statement to the House this afternoon. I thank the Government, Her Majesty’s Opposition and the Liberal Democrats for their support for Bombardier—all-party support in our national Parliament. More interestingly, in Northern Ireland not only have the unionist parties supported Bombardier but Sinn Fein has done so as well. As one who negotiated the Belfast agreement, I am concerned that if thousands of people lose their jobs at Bombardier, that will have an unsettling impact on the ground in Northern Ireland. That should be taken into account.

I noticed that the Foreign Minister for the Republic of Ireland raised the issue of Bombardier when he was in the US last week. Have we had any feedback from the southern Irish Government as to what he achieved or what was said? Has it been encouraging or discouraging, or does it not exist at all? Since we are still in the EU for another few years, and since it controls all trading matters, I ask: has the EU really spoken out for Bombardier in Belfast?

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

It is good that the noble Lord has reiterated the fact that there is all-party support. I take his point. It is interesting, bearing in mind the political challenges in Northern Ireland, that unionists and Sinn Fein are also behind our efforts to find a resolution to this problem. He is right, as I said before, that the impact on the ground if Boeing were not to withdraw its petition would be profound indeed, but I say again that we are at the first stage of this difficult process and we will work as hard as possible to ensure that it is overturned. Again, we say it is unjustified and we do not think it is right, and we will continue to work at all levels to resolve it. On the noble Lord’s point about feedback from the southern Irish Government, there is nothing specific to mention. We continue our engagement with the southern Irish Government but there is nothing to give feedback on.