My Lords, I apologise to the Committee, which is no doubt fed up of hearing my voice. I declare an interest for this group, as I co-chair the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Trade out of Poverty, I am a member of the APPG on the SDGs and I was co-chair, with the Nigerian Trade Minister, of an inquiry into trade and development in the Commonwealth. I thank my noble friend Lady Sheehan, the noble Lord, Lord McConnell, and the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett of Manor Castle, for supporting this important amendment.
The SDGs are a major advance in seeking consensus on achieving major advances in human development. When I took the 0.7% Act through the House of Lords, I did so knowing that we would be putting the platform for our overseas development assistance in statute, and that we would be a world leader, both morally and practically, in implementing the SDGs. Many are off track and hard work is needed to see them implemented, especially in the context of Covid-19.
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The UK has a major role to play, and now that we have an independent trade policy, we need to shape it accordingly. My amendment is consistent with the cross -party, overwhelming support we gave to the principle of meeting our international obligations on aid. I hope there is also consensus that our trade policy should have a fundamental role in meeting SDGs around the world for us and our trading partners.
The Government are seeking continuity in law for trading with the FTAs, and we are seeking continuity in law for trade and development as part of them and for any new agreements. Why do I say continuity? It is because:
“EU law requires all relevant EU policies, including trade policy, to promote sustainable development. EU trade policy aims to ensure that economic development goes hand in hand with: social justice; respect for human rights; high labour standards, and; high environmental standards.
The EU strives to ensure trade policy helps promote sustainable development through: EU trade agreements; special incentives for developing countries, and; trade and development policy.”
I am delighted that, in the continuity agreements, we are also carrying on that approach.
The trade agreements with Central America, Mercosur and countries such as Canada, Japan, Mexico, Vietnam and Ukraine, which we have discussed, all have trade and sustainable development chapters in them. I hope that this will also be the Government’s position in carrying over these agreements and for the remainder of agreements. That should be a straightforward commitment, and I would welcome it if that were the case.
Condition (3) of Amendment 39 would require a report assessing how trade agreements will support the SDGs. Every year so far in our trading relationships through the EU, there has been a report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on the implementation of free trade agreements, including how they are meeting the sustainable development goals and advancing the trade and sustainable development objectives. We want continuity, and we want the UK voluntary national review process under the SDGs to take into consideration our trade and development policies. I hope that this is not a great burden for the Government. I hope that they will be able to commit to stating that that will be an entrenched part of our reports. For those who think this may be a bureaucratic burden, I highlight that the Command Paper on trade referred to by the noble Baroness, Lady Fairhead, in the previous group, committed the Government to an annual report on trade, either in our VNR process for the SDGs or in a UK annual report on trade. Looking at how we are supporting the SDGs is important.
Amendment 97 is directed towards the preferential support and assistance we should give to least developed countries and lower middle-income countries, as defined by the OECD DAC, by virtue of their special trading relationship with us through the generalised scheme of preferences—we now have our independent scheme of preferences—and the Everything But Arms principle. We had been expecting the documentary requirements for our new GSP scheme for developing countries months ago, in order for least developed countries to prepare for January. What is the status of this in terms of their being able to prepare?
I was grateful for a letter from the noble Lord, Lord Grimstone, of 5 October in response to a question I asked about the east African states and Kenya; it was very helpful that he replied so promptly. There was a concerning element to that letter, however, where he volunteered the fact that ODA programmes in place to support countries in their readiness for trade agreements
will be cut. The Minister said that the Government have, in response to the shrinking of our economy and the reduction in our 0.7% commitment,
“identified a package of reductions in the Government’s planned ODA spend so that we can proceed prudently.”
This will mean that the support for least developed countries in implementing the trade agreements that we have asked them to carry out will be reduced.
I want to say something to the Minister very clearly. This is not discretionary on our behalf; we are obliged under treaties to support them. For example, Article 12.3 of the SACU agreement with the Southern African Customs Union and Mozambique states:
“The UK shall support implementation of this Agreement through appropriate and effective UK funding mechanisms in consultation with the SACU Member States and Mozambique to contribute to implementing the programmes and projects to be developed under the areas of cooperation to be mutually identified.”
Those areas have been mutually identified. It is not at the Government’s discretion to cut them unilaterally—we are treaty bound. I would be grateful if the Minister could confirm that we will adhere to all our treaty obligations with the least developed countries, which we have asked them to sign and which we are a signatory to. If these are not in place, how can we honour our commitments to the least developed countries in the world in raising the level of capacity that we have said we will help fund them to put into place?
We can already see some of the reductions, for example, in TradeMark East Africa, an organisation which facilitates higher standards and less bureaucracy, reducing border time processing and trade—all of the areas which the Minister is passionate about, seeing trade agreements as unable to deliver by themselves unless businesses and enterprises can take advantage of them. Our commitment to the least developed around the world should be a priority for our agreements, which is why the amendments in this group are important and I am grateful for the cross-party support for them. I hope the Minister will look on them favourably when he responds, and I beg to move.