(CB): I emphasise
how important this issue is. From my experience, the UK has
arguably the finest legal services in the world. As the founding
chair of the UK India Business Council, I am aware that foreign
lawyers are not allowed to practise in India. That makes it very
difficult for our lawyers to provide advice not just to British
companies in India but to Indian companies, and that is a huge
loss for India and our British legal services. The ability of our
lawyers to practise abroad is crucial. The EU is another area
where we have taken mutual recognition for granted. All sorts of
situations could arise in a no-deal scenario—situations involving
not just advice to companies but disputes. What about consumer
rights, for example? British consumers will no longer be able to
sue in relation to a European product here in the UK. It will
have to be done in the country of origin in the EU and, if our
lawyers cannot help out, that will be to the detriment of our
consumers. Therefore, this is a very important point that cannot
be taken for granted and should be included...
(Con):...Will the
first set of regulations make clear the overall structure of the
preferences scheme? Will it also make clear the structure in
relation to specific products from developing countries, which
are not to have the unilateral nil duty of tariff but are to be
treated as graduated products? This sometimes happens for reasons
of relative competitiveness or due to the need to protect
industries in this country—as might, for example, be the case
with textile imports from India or Bangladesh. Will the
availability of the preferences for those graduated products be
specified in the regulations, so that the two Houses can look in
detail at the way in which the preference scheme is to vary in
relation to certain sectors and certain countries, which might
give rise to differences between the EU scheme and our scheme?
Clearly there are graduated products, particularly in the
agricultural sphere, where the protection
afforded is to southern European
producers for certain agricultural products that have no
relevance in the United Kingdom. This could be true for
industrial products as well...
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