European Union (Amendment) Bill

My Lords, for clarity, can the noble Lord, Lord Howell, say what significance he attaches to the reality that the European Union negotiates trade terms with China as an entity and is therefore able to deploy much greater strength and influence than even the strongest individual economy can do inside the European Union? Can we have his view on what he thinks the future of the trade mandate of the European Union, given by its democracies, really is?