Oral Answers to Questions

Ranil Jayawardena Excerpts
Thursday 20th January 2022

(2 years, 2 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Cherilyn Mackrory Portrait Cherilyn Mackrory (Truro and Falmouth) (Con)
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8. What progress her Department has made on maximising opportunities for international trade in 2022.

Ranil Jayawardena Portrait The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Trade (Mr Ranil Jayawardena)
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The Department continues to work hard to boost prosperity in every corner of our country, helping businesses export, securing investment, negotiating free trade agreements, bulldozing trade barriers and championing free trade. Just last week, as my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Trade said, we launched negotiations with India, an economy of 1.4 billion people worth £2 trillion. Our consultation on an FTA with the Gulf Co-operation Council closed last week, and I look forward to launching those negotiations soon. We continue to break through market access barriers. In 2020-21 alone, we resolved more than 200 barriers across 74 countries.

Cherilyn Mackrory Portrait Cherilyn Mackrory
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I thank the Minister for his answer. Will my hon. Friend expand on how businesses in Truro and Falmouth, as well as in wider Cornwall, can take advantage of free trade deals that the Government hope to secure in 2022, so that my constituents can reap the rewards and benefits that they will bring?

Ranil Jayawardena Portrait Mr Jayawardena
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My hon. Friend is a great champion of businesses in Truro and Falmouth. The south-west is already benefiting from the Department’s work and will continue to do so. A deal with India would benefit the more than 600 west country businesses that exported more than £20 million of goods to India in 2020, and I am sure many more will do so in the future. Food and drink producers—even those that use imported ingredients—now qualify for nil tariffs in a deal with Australia, which is good news for fans of Cornish pasties down under.

Afzal Khan Portrait Afzal Khan (Manchester, Gorton) (Lab)
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9. If she will take steps with Cabinet colleagues to ban the import of Chinese cotton and solar panels from Xinjiang.

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Rupa Huq Portrait Dr Rupa Huq (Ealing Central and Acton) (Lab)
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12. What steps she is taking to ensure that protections for exports to third countries negotiated while the UK was a member of the EU are maintained following the UK’s departure from the EU.

Ranil Jayawardena Portrait The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Trade (Mr Ranil Jayawardena)
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Since leaving the EU, the United Kingdom has secured trade agreements with 70 non-EU countries, in addition to the deal with the EU. Many of those deals were negotiated to secure continuity of trade, and they cover 99% of the trade under trade agreements we were subject to when we were also subject to the diktats of the EU, which I am sure is not what the Labour party is advocating today.

Rupa Huq Portrait Dr Huq
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I listened to what Mr Speaker said—I mean the Minister—[Interruption.] Of course we always listen to everything Mr Speaker says. The Minister’s description does not tally with the experience of my constituent, Danny Hodgson, whose clothes retail business Rivet & Hide made the Financial Times exactly a year ago because of the crippling new additional duties he faces in importing from the EU. This time it is even worse, because he is finding that all the goods coming in from Japan are attracting a 12% levy. That is slapped on erroneously and routinely seven out of 10 times, I think, and it is a bureaucratic, red tape, bookkeeping nightmare for him. Will the Government look into the case? They are meant to be the party of small and medium-sized enterprises and low tax, and they have trashed their reputation for all that. Can the Government urgently help my constituent please?

Ranil Jayawardena Portrait Mr Jayawardena
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I am delighted that the hon. Lady recognises that this party is the party of business. That is great news and I welcome her remarks. She references a business that trades with Japan, but I note that she did not vote for the deal with Japan nor the deals with Canada, Singapore or even the EU. Of course we will happily look at any business that she wishes to raise with me in writing, but I point out that this party is the party of business. We are the party that is securing the trade deals that will benefit businesses across our country.

Paul Howell Portrait Paul Howell (Sedgefield) (Con)
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13. What recent steps her Department has taken to support manufacturing businesses to (a) increase exports, (b) participate in the global market and (c) compete internationally.

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Mark Eastwood Portrait Mark Eastwood (Dewsbury) (Con)
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15. What steps her Department has taken to reduce barriers to global trade for British businesses.

Ranil Jayawardena Portrait The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Trade (Mr Ranil Jayawardena)
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In addition to negotiating FTAs, as I have said, we are cutting through red tape and opening markets for British business around the world. Last year, we resolved over 200 barriers across 74 countries, which was an increase of 20% on the previous year—[Interruption.] I am delighted that the hon. Member for Na h-Eileanan an Iar (Angus Brendan MacNeil) is getting so excited about that success. We have secured British poultry market access in Japan, estimated by industry to be worth up to £13 million a year, and we have lifted the decades-long ban on British lamb exports to the United States, estimated by industry to be worth £37 million over the next five years.

Mark Eastwood Portrait Mark Eastwood
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Since being appointed the trade envoy to Pakistan, I have encountered a number of issues that hinder potential trade opportunities such as exporting meat and poultry to help our farmers and importing high quality granite and marble that is important to the UK burial industry, and difficulties for businesses gaining access to UK Export Finance. Will the Minister outline what he is doing to overcome those and other barriers so that trade can be open not just to Pakistan but across the globe?

Ranil Jayawardena Portrait Mr Jayawardena
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I thank my hon. Friend for his great work as trade envoy to Pakistan. We are very aware of the challenges to exports in the farming sector posed by costly market access barriers around the world, which is why we are working closely with our counterparts in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and engaging trading partners to remove them where possible, as I have outlined, so that Great British meat and produce can be enjoyed all around the world.

My hon. Friend mentioned UKEF, which has a £1.5 billion risk appetite to support exports in Pakistan with a specialist team on hand to discuss options available to British businesses of all sizes. He will also know that we will soon launch our developing countries trading scheme, which will look to further simplify trading arrangements with developing countries, including Pakistan.

Deidre Brock Portrait Deidre Brock (Edinburgh North and Leith) (SNP)
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In the interests of peace and harmony, I shall refrain from dwelling on the Ashes cricket series.

Small businesses are simply less likely to be able to afford the consultants, lawyers, trade experts and advisers necessary to navigate the complexities of the hard Brexit customs checks that this Government insisted on. Despite that, the Government have now closed the SME Brexit support fund and not replaced it, although a Channel 4 investigation found that 26% of SMEs that trade with the EU are now considering moving some of their European operations outside the UK, while 16% said they had already done so. A Lords report published in December said it is absolutely vital that it is reopened with wider eligibility criteria, and the Federation of Small Businesses has also been calling for that for months. Will the Minister listen to the small business experts?

Ranil Jayawardena Portrait Mr Jayawardena
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First, I am sure the hon. Member would want to direct all businesses to our export support service, which will help British businesses get the answers to the practical questions they may have about exporting to Europe, accessing cross-Government information and support all in one place. She will be pleased to know that the statistics actually show that monthly exports to the EU are now £13.6 billion, which is 12% higher than average exports in 2020. That shows that significant progress is being made in our exports from businesses of all sizes up and down our country.

Marion Fellows Portrait Marion Fellows (Motherwell and Wishaw) (SNP)
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16. What recent assessment she has made of trends in the level of UK trade with the (a) EU and (b) rest of the world.

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Scott Benton Portrait Scott Benton (Blackpool South) (Con)
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Our co-operation with Saudi Arabia on defence and security helps to maintain hundreds of jobs at BAE Warton on the Fylde coast. What steps are the Government taking to further develop that relationship and the opportunities for trade with Saudi Arabia?

Ranil Jayawardena Portrait The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Trade (Mr Ranil Jayawardena)
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We have just finished a consultation with British businesses, citizens and civil society on their aspirations for a free trade agreement with the Gulf Co-operation Council, of which Saudi Arabia is an important part. My hon. Friend knows that that will provide the opportunity to reduce tariffs and streamline market access barriers. He will also be aware, from the excellent report by BAE Systems, that there are well over 500—maybe even 600—jobs in Blackpool because of the presence of BAE Systems in that part of our country, which shows the importance of our strategic exports.

Angus Brendan MacNeil Portrait Angus Brendan MacNeil (Na h-Eileanan an Iar) (SNP)
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This Government, as we know, have blundered many times, and now a lobster or a leg of chicken cannot be sold to any country in the world without five, eight or 10 bits of paperwork. I am trying to prevent another blunder.

The Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys supports the accession to CPTPP, but cautions that

“we believe that if the UK were to sign up the CPTPP IP chapter as currently drafted, this could have unintended consequences”

for our reputation as an international patent leader, for innovative small and medium-sized enterprises, for UK GDP and for the UK patent profession. It asks that

“the UK…should take a very firm position and insist on carve outs for the UK from these provisions of CPTPP.”

Will the Department take up that ask and insist that it happens?