Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

Defence Exports

Monday 3 February 2020 · 2 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 2 Partly answered 0 Not answered 0

Key points

  • Harriett Baldwin asked the Minister about steps taken to support UK defence manufacturing through promoting defence exports.
  • The Minister chairs a working group that includes the International Trade Secretary to support UK defence exports.
  • The Minister emphasized the importance of the US defence market for UK defence industry and mentioned the need to include the defence sector in US-UK free trade agreement discussions.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 Harriett Baldwin Con Wells
Defence Business & Trade
Context

The question follows a statement by the Secretary of State for Defence about supporting UK defence manufacturing and promoting defence exports.

Question

What recent steps he has taken with the Secretary of State for International Trade to support UK defence manufacturing by promoting defence exports?

Answer from Ben Wallace

On behalf of the Prime Minister, I chair the defence, security and exports working group, which is attended by the International Trade Secretary. Ministers from Defence and International Trade support regular overseas trade missions and attend a wide range of international exhibitions, most notably last year's Defence and Security Equipment International, where we jointly hosted 58 international delegations, demonstrating the best of British defence exports.

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Q2 Harriett Baldwin Con Wells
Defence Business & Trade
Context

The Secretary of State for Defence was asked about the importance of the US defence market to both countries and how to prioritise the defence sector in upcoming discussions.

Question

The Secretary of State will know how much of our defence equipment pipeline is coming from the US. He will also know how much our excellent UK defence industry sells into the US. Will he make sure that, as we start the US-UK free trade agreement discussions, the defence sector is one of the sectors that is prioritised?

Answer from Ben Wallace

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The US defence market is incredibly important for both the United States and the United Kingdom. Some of my honourable colleagues in this House and I lobbied for the original UK-US defence tech trade treaty in 2006. We believe that it is so important. The reality is that, yes, we have more work to do. These trade deals will be incredibly important to make sure that we secure British jobs in order to sell aerospace and partner in aerospace across both countries.

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