Trade Bill

It is a pleasure to open consideration on Report of the Trade Bill and to speak to new clause 5. ...

I thank the Minister for his earlier comments. He talks about continuity agreements, but are they...

Let me be clear: we are talking about continuity. My hon. Friend can judge us not just by what I ...

rose—

Will the Minister give way?

I will give way to the hon. Member for Brent North (Barry Gardiner)—it is great to see him back i...

The Minister talks of CRAG as if it is a process under which this Parliament has any power. He kn...

It is good to see the hon. Gentleman back. I remember that he was originally a Blairite Minister ...

I will make a little bit more progress.

As I have said, the other place has held debates on...

With ceramics being the fourth largest export to Japan and its industry, does the Minister see an...

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. All my interactions, and those of the Secretary of State, wit...

Will the Minister give way?

I will not give way just now. We are committed to additional scrutiny arrangements for any deal w...

In that context, I understand why there is limited scrutiny for small trade deals, and the Minist...

I absolutely give my hon. Friend that assurance, and I will come on to discuss those deals in a m...

I concur entirely with what the Minister is saying. Is it not the case that if we allow further p...

My hon. Friend is absolutely correct that our scrutiny offer compares very favourably with Austra...

Will the Minister give way?

I am going to make more progress.

This Government understand the desire of Parliament to ha...

I am going to make progress.

We have already done this for the US, for Japan, for Australia...

I am going to make some more progress.

In addition, the Government have committed to provid...

Will the Minister give way?

I am going to make more progress.

For new trade agreements, the Government have already com...

Will the Minister give way?

I am not going to give way further during this section of my speech.

Similarly—this is an i...

rose—

I will put the hon. Gentleman out of his misery and give way.

I just want to make a point about the nature of the scrutiny. A few weeks ago, the Government rig...

I thank the hon. Gentleman for that intervention, which allows me to say that the National Farmer...

Will the Minister give way?

No, I will make some progress. The Government are strongly committed to transparency, as demonstr...

I accept the Minister’s point that for devolved Parliaments to be able to undermine a national tr...

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for that intervention. The first thing to say is that I have reg...

I acknowledge the undertakings that the Government have given on agriculture and food production,...

I absolutely give my hon. Friend those assurances. The Government’s climate change agenda—indeed,...

Will the Minister give way?

I am going to make some progress. Let me address matters related to animal welfare, food standard...

There is not just concern on both sides of the House; my right hon. Friend knows that there is a ...

I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention, which allows me to explain the difference. Some of ...

Will the right hon. Member give way?

I will not, because I have gone on for long enough.

Order. May I assist by indicating that so many people want to take part on Report that those who ...

I have much more to say, in relation to 50 different amendments, but I appreciate that there are ...

International trade has rarely been more important. It is critical as we forge a new place in the...

Will the hon. Member give way on that point?

I will give way in a moment. Our amendments attempt to rectify the Bill’s serious shortcomings an...

Does my hon. Friend share with me the sense that the Government have told us that they needed the...

My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and I pay tribute to his time as the shadow Secretary of Stat...

rose—

The hon. Gentleman has been very patient, so I give way to him.

I thank the shadow Minister for giving way.

I am a member of the International Trade Commit...

As the hon. Gentleman knows from being on the International Trade Committee, CRAG was part of the...

I just note that, as a member of the European Parliament’s trade committee, I had far more powers...

The hon. Lady anticipates some things I am going to say a bit later. What she says is entirely co...

Does my hon. Friend accept that we can learn through failure as well? One reason that the Transat...

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I shall come to TTIP as an example of how not to carry out sc...

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

I will give way a little later, if the hon. Gentleman does not mind, because a lot of Members are...

Will the hon. Gentleman give way on the scrutiny point?

On the Michael Spicer point?

I do not know if Michael Spicer is talking to the hon. Gentleman or not; we will find out in a mo...

The shadow Minister talks about scrutiny and refers to trade unions. However, if we have trade un...

It is a shame that the hon. Gentleman has taken up other hon. Members’ time in the debate with su...

Just to backtrack a moment, I remind my hon. Friend of the claims made by the Minister in his ope...

Absolutely. We compare very badly with the scrutiny in the United States, some of which I have al...

And time.

And time. What possible reason can the Government have for wanting to avoid scrutiny, and why on ...

Northern Ireland producers in the agrifood sector export 75% of their products, so it is really i...

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for raising that point about Northern Ireland. When the Bill ...

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

I am not going to take any more interventions because I am about to finish.

I said at the s...

Order. In case the House is not already aware, after the next speaker, we will have a time limit ...

There are four significant flaws with this piece of legislation: the absence of devolved consent,...

Our trading ability is something that concerns each and every one of us across the whole United K...

I am more than happy to support new clause 4, not least because I have signed it, but it is a sli...

I wonder whether the people in Scotland, like the people in England and in my constituency in Win...

I want to be careful in how I answer that. I hope the hon. Gentleman understands that perhaps tho...

The hon. Gentleman is making a fine speech. Does he agree that it seems a considerable irony that...

Yes, and I made that point. It is wrong for these provisions to be available only to investors in...

Order. We now have a time limit of four minutes.

I rise to support the Bill because I believe that removing unnecessary barriers to trade can boos...

This Trade Bill is fatally flawed. It could have been a bold statement about our future trade dea...

Will the hon. Lady give way?

I only have a few seconds left.

If the planned negotiations will include all those rights a...

It is a great honour to speak in this debate, having spoken briefly on Second Reading and sat on ...

That is patently false. All the new clause does is to say, “If you want to produce food to export...

I do not agree with the hon. Gentleman on the wording of the new clause. It talks about

“st...

It is extremely interesting to follow the hon. Member for Witney (Robert Courts), who seems to be...

I am listening to the hon. Member carefully, as I always do, but we are dealing in facts. She sai...

I am happy to accept that as a fact, but does the hon. Gentleman accept that the unwillingness of...

It gives me great pleasure to rise in this debate and I welcome the fact that the Minister sailed...

One of the reasons that I want things in the Bill is that they might otherwise be changed through...

The hon. Lady, I know, understands the process of this House probably better than me, and a statu...

My hon. Friend and constituency neighbour mentions the commission. We were lobbied by many of our...

I dare not disagree with my parliamentary neighbour. I very much welcome the commission and I say...

The horsemeat scandal revealed significant vulnerabilities in the traceability of our food supply...

I have won the argument on chlorinated chicken and we have moved on to another product. I say to ...

It is a pleasure to follow my constituency neighbour, the hon. Member for Montgomeryshire (Craig ...

I say to the hon. Member for Ceredigion (Ben Lake) that it is a pleasure to follow such a thought...

Does my hon. Friend agree that Opposition Members wish simply to sow doubt among the public about...

My hon. Friend is entirely correct on that. Having been part of the Bill Committee in the past we...

It is always a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for South Ribble (Katherine Fletcher), as I rec...

I speak to the new clauses tabled in my name, and those of others, concerning the scrutiny of fre...

Does my hon. Friend welcome the commitment from our Government on welfare and the environment, an...

I absolutely agree. In January 2018, on Second Reading of the 2017-19 Bill, the then Secretary of...

My hon. Friend is mentioning very large trade deals. Does he mean that the crux of this oversight...

New clause 4 does deal with all trade deals, but obviously the amount of scrutiny would be propor...

I rise to speak to new clauses 17 and 11, and on the principles of workers’ rights, national heal...

Does my hon. Friend agree that many people who go to restaurants or to fast-food outlets will hav...

My hon. Friend makes such an important point. It is one that I will not repeat.

On the ques...

It is an honour to follow the hon. Member for Hornsey and Wood Green (Catherine West). The Bill i...

Does my hon. Friend agree that our fishing industry similarly needs the Trade Bill, to show our s...

I agree with my hon. Friend about our fishing industry. We have a fantastic product. I have eaten...

Does my hon. Friend agree that the devolved Administrations play a key role in any future trade p...

I am a great Unionist. I believe that we are part of the United Kingdom and we should be working ...

Northern Ireland farmers export to 70 countries in the world, many of which have lower standards ...

I agree with my right hon. Friend. We do not want to lower our standards. We do not want a race t...

It is a great pleasure to speak after the hon. Member for South Antrim (Paul Girvan). Agriculture...

The standards, protections and rights that we have all come to enjoy are put at risk by this Bill...

It is always unsettling when I speak in the Chamber and my colleagues seem to leave and the Whips...

I think the hon. Gentleman means “Madam Deputy Speaker”.

I beg your pardon, Madam Deputy Speaker.

Reading the Bill and looking at the amendments, I ...

Does the hon. Gentleman believe that weakening devolution and taking back powers from the devolve...

That is exactly why the Board of Trade was reintroduced by my right hon. Friend the Member for No...

This Trade Bill is deeply flawed. I have been contacted by countless constituents and campaigns, ...

Order. After the next speaker, the time limit on Back-Bench speeches will be three minutes. That ...

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.

Ahead of today’s debate, and like my hon. Friend the Membe...

Order. Members might wonder why I am persistently calling those on the Opposition side of the Hou...

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. With Britain heading out of the EU on 31 December, it appears th...

As three Government Back Benchers in a row have failed to appear in the Chamber, we will go strai...

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. It is vital that as we shape our future trade policy, we do it i...

Order. The hon. Lady has exceeded her time by quite a long way. I call Antony Higginbotham.

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Upper Bann (Carla Lockhart). Having spoken on Seco...

I rise to speak in particular to SNP amendment 10 and new clause 7, in the name of my hon. Friend...

I start by declaring an interest: my wife’s family are farmers. I have listened carefully to the ...

I have a sense of déjà vu, because it is just under 18 months ago that we had a debate in this Ch...

I am excited by the possibilities for our future as an independent trading nation, and I support ...

When I spoke in an earlier debate on global Britain, I was accused of

“supping from the cup...

This Trade Bill represents a unique opportunity for us in the challenging circumstances that we f...

Today will be a historic day that we can hopefully look back on and say, “As a Parliament, we did...

I had the privilege of sitting on the Committee of this historic Bill, and I have scrutinised it ...

I know that I have a very short time so I just want to make one point very quickly. I am disappoi...

With the leave of the House, I would like to respond to what has been a wide-ranging and often we...