(Glasgow East)
(SNP): The Secretary of State is right to refer to the
emerging middle class in growing economies—India is one
example—but can he give me a cast-iron guarantee that when he is
negotiating these trade agreements, human rights and issues such
as freedom of religion and belief will be at the forefront of his
mind? I am concerned about the possibility that, as we go around
negotiating these wonderful free trade agreements, we will start
to ignore human rights, particularly in the case of India.
The Secretary of State for International Trade and
President of the Board of Trade (Dr Liam Fox): The
importance that the UK ascribes to human rights is extremely well
documented in the range of Departments that are involved. The
Government do not intend to seek any watering down of concepts of
human rights, although it is very reasonable for us to have
different provisions in countries such as Canada and the United
States, whose legal remedies and legal systems are similar to
ours, from those that we would have in some other countries. We
will want to be flexible on that, and it is one of the issues
that I want to see built into real-time parliamentary scrutiny of
our trade agreements so that the House can determine whether the
values represented by the United Kingdom are reflected in those
agreements...
...It is predicted that the share of global GDP of the
seven largest emerging economies—Brazil,
China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia and
Turkey—could increase from around 35% to nearly 50% by 2050,
which would mean that they would overtake the G7, although of
course even with more mature economies the International Monetary
Fund has predicted that the United States will grow over 50%
faster than the euro area this year, at 2.5%. This historic shift
in global economic and demographic power will reshape the
opportunities of international trade in the years to come,
perhaps faster than many expect...
(Dundee East)
(SNP):...I intervened on the Secretary of State to ask
about the NIESR report published in 2017, which showed a 22% to
30% fall in total UK trade, depending on the type of Brexit. It
also suggested a total rise in UK trade of about 2.6% from an FTA
with the main English-speaking economies, and a similar rise with
an FTA with the BRIC countries— Brazil,
Russia, Indiaand China. That is nowhere near
close to filling the trade gap that Brexit will cause. It is hard
to believe that the deals being discussed today with the main
English-speaking economies, plus the CPTPP deal, would do any
better...
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