Brexit: Commonwealth, Trade and Migration

Viscount Waverley Excerpts

Monday 13th March 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Price]

I am delighted to put on record our thanks to the noble Lord, Lord Marland, for organising the first day of the two-day conference. I think the White Paper said that the conference was going to be held in the UK rather than it being organised by the UK. If it did not make that clear, my apologies once again. My noble friend did a wonderful job in bringing together 37 Trade Ministers from across the Commonwealth and we had very fruitful meetings.

On the noble Lord’s second point, the meeting drew out the fact that there are a wide range of economic opportunities and challenges across those 52 countries. Some are subject at the moment to GSP schemes from the EU, others have economic partnership arrangements, and a number have free trade agreements. All need to be treated differently so that we can achieve the best outcome for all 52 countries.

[Viscount Waverley (CB)]

My Lords, does the Minister agree that there is certainly a role for government, not least to create the environment to allow the private sector to thrive? However, UK industry and multipliers should be looking to partnership with their peers across the Commonwealth for corporate opportunities.

[Lord Price]

I very much agree with the noble Viscount that this is best handled on a business-to-business level. However, the Government have a role to ensure that we have the very best framework to allow businesses to prosper by trading with each other.