Oral Answers to Questions

Selaine Saxby Excerpts

Thursday 15th December 2022 Commons Chamber

[Wendy Morton (Aldridge-Brownhills) (Con)]

8. What progress her Department has made on tackling trade barriers for British food and farming businesses.

[Selaine Saxby (North Devon) (Con)]

15. What progress her Department has made on tackling trade barriers for British food and farming businesses.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Trade (Andrew Bowie)]

Thank you, Mr Speaker, for allowing the House to take a moment this morning to show our resolve, and the country’s resolve, never to forget the horrors and barbarism committed on our continent within living memory. We will always remember the holocaust, and man’s inhumanity to man, and we resolve to work to ensure that the suffering of so many is never forgotten and never repeated.

In the past two years we have resolved nearly 400 trade barriers, from opening markets for UK pork in Mexico and Chile to UK poultry in Japan. The recent deals with Australia and New Zealand also provide various mechanisms to identify and address trade barriers. This year the UK achieved the first export of British lamb to the USA in more than 20 years, a market estimated by industry to be worth £37 million over the first five years.

--- Later in debate ---

[Andrew Bowie]

If my right hon. Friend were to invite me, I would be delighted to visit the Backyard Brewhouse in Brownhills. British food and drink are among the best in the world, renowned for their quality and provenance. DIT is delivering an incredibly successful programme of activity for our exports, matching our producers with international buyers. We are placing eight new dedicated agrifood attachés in growth markets around the world.

[Selaine Saxby]

What more is my hon. Friend hoping to deliver to ensure that our great British produce carries “Brand Britain,” through national and regional UK geographical indicators to an international stage in existing and future free trade arrangements?

[Andrew Bowie]

I thank my hon. Friend for what she does for the food producers of North Devon. We have fantastic British produce, with protected geographical indications, such as Welsh lamb, Scotch whisky and Stilton, which are promoted and recognised around the globe through the GREAT Britain & Northern Ireland campaign, and at home through our “Made in the UK, Sold to the World” marketing strategy. This supports small and medium-sized enterprises to understand and access the benefits of FTAs and wider export opportunities and future success stories from all parts of the UK. I would be delighted to meet her to discuss what more we can do to support exports from North Devon and, indeed, the rest of the UK.

Oral Answers to Questions

Selaine Saxby Excerpts

Thursday 21st July 2022 Commons Chamber

[Selaine Saxby (North Devon) (Con)]

6. What steps her Department has taken to help reduce barriers to global trade for British businesses.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Trade (Mr Ranil Jayawardena)]

Removing trade barriers boosts our exports to new and familiar markets around the world. We have resolved 396 barriers around the world in the past two years, and just 45 of the 192 barriers we resolved in the last financial year could be worth around £5 billion to businesses across our country. If we can remove the next 100 trade barriers on our most wanted list, it has the potential to deliver export opportunities for British businesses worth around £20 billion. As one example, last month we removed barriers in Mongolia that prevented the export of British poultry and fish, opening up a market worth £10 million.

[Selaine Saxby]

Many of my North Devon farmers and the National Farmers Union are concerned about food imports, but given the quality of our British food and drink, and the vast global market for our superior produce, what support has my hon. Friend’s Department put in place to promote and help farmers export around the world?

[Mr Jayawardena]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We see real potential for British food and drink exports to grow, particularly in high-growth markets where the middle classes are expanding—notably the Asia- Pacific region. We work closely with farming and food organisations, such as the NFU, to deliver a practical range of export support for farmers and food businesses. We are removing trade barriers globally, as I have referenced, including the ban on British beef in the Philippines, opening up a market worth £375 million a year to British farmers. We are expanding our overseas network of more than 100 agriculture, food and drink trade advisers to include eight new dedicated attachés, who will focus on unlocking trade barriers for our great British farmers.

Oral Answers to Questions

Selaine Saxby Excerpts

Thursday 3rd March 2022 Commons Chamber

[Anne-Marie Trevelyan]

We will continue to work across Government using all the tools I mentioned, but in the meantime I encourage all those who continue to export to Ukraine to use the Export Support Service if they need that support. We will continue to use all the tools at our disposal to make sure that Putin understands fully that the behaviour he is demonstrating is absolutely outrageous. The Foreign Secretary will lead those discussions.

[Selaine Saxby (North Devon) (Con)]

T2. We have many successful global exporters home grown in North Devon, such as Turnstyle Designs, S+H lighting and Saltrock surf wear, but many smaller companies feel that this is not something that they can do. Will my hon. Friend highlight what support is available to companies in remote and rural areas such as North Devon to help them to grow and export?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Trade (Mike Freer)]

My hon. Friend makes a very good point. We have already undertaken over 80 virtual Export Academy events in the south-west of England. If she would like to attend the export showcase on 9 March, we can show her the full range of support that we can provide to her companies.