Topical Questions

Question

Yesterday, I returned from Delhi after holding trade talks with my counterpart, Minister Piyush Goyal. We agreed that an ambitious, balanced deal can be reached at the earliest opportunity. Meeting key UK and Indian businesses made clearer still the opportunities that the FTA would create for businesses in Orpington and across the UK.

Question

In 2019, our trade with CPTPP countries reached £110.7 billion, so does my right hon. Friend share my optimism that joining the bloc will increase our national prosperity? Does he agree that free trade and helping businesses such as those in Orpington to export are how we will create genuine, long-term, sustainable wealth?

Question

May I wish all hon. Members a very happy Christmas? In the spirit of Christmas cheer, I will offer the Minister for Trade Policy some help after his struggles in the Christmas quiz from my hon. Friend the Member for Brentford and Isleworth earlier: it was, of course, the Prime Minister who said that the Australia deal is “one-sided”. There is more: “The first step is to recognise that the Australia trade deal is not actually a very good deal for the UK”.—[Official Report, 14 November 2022; Vol. 722, c. 424.] Those are not my words, but the words of the former Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the right hon. Member for Camborne and Redruth (George Eustice). Quite simply, why should anyone have confidence in the Conservatives' trade policy when they do not have confidence in it themselves?

Question

If the Secretary of State thinks that those views are nonsense, I suggest she takes them up with the Prime Minister and the former Secretary of State. It was their judgment that I put to her, not my words. On trade, the reality is that the Conservatives are delivering either bad deals or no deals at all. That is what happens when we have a Government who are high on rhetoric and devoid of strategy, with workers and businesses paying the price. Let me ask a simple question. If the Government will not hit their target of 80% of our trade being under FTAs by the end of the year—and they won't—when will they hit it?

Question

Medtrade in my constituency has not only been supplying battlefield bleed control packs to Ukraine, but recently received approval for a new treatment for postpartum haemorrhage, which affects 14 million women globally and causes 80,000 deaths a year. Will the Secretary of State join me in meeting Medtrade in Crewe to understand how we can better help such innovative life sciences companies in our constituencies?

Question

The Secretary of State recently announced signing a memorandum of understanding with the US state of South Carolina focusing on life sciences and automotive—areas that are very important to the north-east. Could she set out exactly how businesses in Newcastle can benefit from that memorandum of understanding and whether it is supposed to compensate for the lack of any trade agreement with the United States?

Question

As was rightly pointed out earlier, food price inflation is a huge problem for British consumers. Does my right hon. Friend agree that we should look at negotiating trade in tomatoes from Morocco, which has the potential of saving about £180 million a year? That would be a big improvement for the British consumer, as every little helps each individual.

Question

Will the Government accept that if the anti-dumping duties placed on Chinese imported aluminium extrusions are too low, the result could be the loss of thousands upon thousands of British jobs?

Question

The UK has a highly developed renewable energy sector, which includes many businesses based in my constituency. Across the world there are many countries eager to remove fossil fuel generation. Can the Minister give an assurance that the Department will do more to encourage our renewable energy sector to get more into the export market?

Question

The Centre for Business Prosperity at Aston University has estimated that 42% of British exports have disappeared from European shelves since Brexit. Is the Secretary of State proud of her party's 12-year record in charge of export policy?

Question

Can my right hon. Friend update the House on trade envoy positions? Following my recent Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office report on the Commonwealth, which I am sure he has read, will there be a specific trade envoy position for the Commonwealth family of nations?

Question

Northern Ireland's food and drink exports are worth some £5.4 billion, and we export 65% of the sector's manufacturing to the UK, the EU and the rest of the world. What discussions has the Minister had with the Ulster Farmers' Union, in which I declare an interest, to commit to protecting Northern Ireland's agriculture industry in any future trade deal?

Question

The road to net zero provides many local job-creation opportunities on the north East Anglian coast in technologies such as offshore wind, hydrogen and carbon capture. The Government are backing these industries, but significant private sector investment is required. I would be grateful if my right hon. Friend outlined what her Department is doing to attract inward investment to these exciting emerging sectors.

Question

Exports such as squid from the Falklands are an enormously important part of the economies of our overseas territories and Crown dependencies. Can my right hon. Friend assure me that everything possible is being done to support the trading relationships of this important part of the British family?

Question

I was interested to hear the Secretary of State's update on India. Can she go into more detail on how many chapters have closed and on the big opportunities in this trading relationship?

Question

I am concerned about how the North Carolina trade agreement will help businesses in places such as West Oxfordshire to export to every corner of the United States, our largest trading partner?

Question

I ask my right hon. Friend to confirm first that the next round of Joint Economic and Trade Committee talks will happen here in London in the first quarter of next year, secondly that the new Government-to-Government framework has Indonesia as a priority, and thirdly if we can move to negotiations on an FTA as soon as possible?

Question

I thank Mr Speaker for leading us in the one-minute silence commemorating 80 years since this House recognised that the holocaust was taking place. I ask if there is a new mood of optimism around the Franco-British bilateral relationship, and if the planned summit provides an opportunity to deepen ties on trade and energy security?