My Lords, this has been a very wide-ranging debate across a large number of issues. Many of the points on which noble Lords have gone into detail were picked up at Second Reading, so I shall take in the comments made then with those of noble Lords who have spoken to amendments today and feed in all the information that we need.
I tabled three amendments on climate and labour standards and I shall focus on the labour standards one, which has been touched only on in passing. I thank noble Lords who have offered support. I shall turn to Amendment 25 and then take a step back to climate and other issues. Trade unions all over the globe have found consensus in concerns regarding CPTPP’s inadequate measures properly to enforce the ILO standards, which is why the amendment calls for an impact assessment.
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We all take the points made by the noble Lord, Lord Kerr, about the final accession agreement—the 12th one—being approved, which then allows us to access properly, rather than the passing of the Act. When we come to Report, I am sure that that will be taken into account. That is one of the joys of Committee, as the noble Lord, Lord Holmes, recognised.
To take the point made by the noble Viscount, Lord Trenchard, my amendments in this group call for two years, which gives us more of a timeframe. If we take that on from accession, that ties in very neatly with the Minister’s—or the departmental—first assessment of the impact of the actual agreement. As the noble Lord, Lord Purvis of Tweed, just said, I am sure that it will be a nice easy step for the Minister to add a little more detail about the specific areas in which we are looking for those impact assessments to be laid.
To turn back to labour standards, one concern is that the agreement includes a number of countries that allow significant abuses of workers’ rights to take place—again we touched on this in the first day of Committee and at Second Reading. Brunei and Vietnam have actually banned independent trade unions, which is a further violation of ILO standards. While the CPTPP includes a chapter on labour, which could theoretically impose sanctions on labour standards violations, this can proceed only if there is an identifiable relationship between the country’s alleged violation and the level of effectiveness of trade. This is not morally intact, as it implies that concerns are valid only because they impact on trade, not because workers’ rights violations are fundamentally wrong in themselves. Nor is it practical, as it is difficult to prove that there is a link between the two factors, even when one exists, meaning that most attempts to highlight a country’s labour standards violations will fail. To date, no Government in the CPTPP accession 11 has challenged another over labour rights violations, which leaves little hope that the UK would have the capacity to do so.
By making it easier for public procurement suppliers to come from CPTPP countries, the agreement increases the risk that public money will be spent on goods produced by exploited workers as labour rights are abused in many of the CPTPP countries. We heard
this on day 1 about Malaysian rubber gloves, whereby even the United States stepped back from accepting those rubber gloves for one year, while reviews were taking place. CPTPP’s labour chapter refers only to the 1998 ILO declaration, which in itself is a low bar. It does not require members to have ratified the ILO’s eight fundamental ILO conventions.
More specifically, Brunei has ratified only two and Malaysia and Singapore only five. Five of the 11 CPTPP nations have not ratified the freedom of association convention, including Mexico, where companies regularly engage in union-busting, and Vietnam, where the union leaders at workplaces are often the senior managers. I would be grateful for the Minister’s analysis of and response to that.
On climate, the department has produced a fantastic impact assessment, which a number of noble Lords have touched on. There is a statement on page 79 on land use and deforestation that is worth putting on the record as it goes to a number of points raised earlier:
“Deforestation in CPTPP countries, where it occurs, has been driven by production of commodities such as cattle, timber and palm oil. The majority of CPTPP members are not considered to be at risk of deforestation, except Malaysia which has experienced a 29% reduction in tree cover over the last 20 years. This has been driven by agricultural commodities which accounted for 93% of Malaysia’s tree cover loss since 2001, implying that international trade plays a key role in the country’s deforestation”.
If we as a country believe in and want to support the protection of forests and high standards across the globe, taking the Government’s own impact assessment, how will they do that given the real concerns raised in my amendment and a number of others, specifically the one on pesticides?
The final paragraph on page 79 says:
“As part of the CPTPP process, the UK and Malaysia have agreed a bilateral statement setting out a shared commitment to work together to promote sustainable production of commodities and to conserve forests”.
This is excellent, but it goes on:
“The UK and Malaysia have also committed to regularly share information with one another about ongoing domestic developments related to the environment and sustainable supply chains and production. This includes updates to the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil certification scheme”.
It would be helpful to know in what timeframe the Malaysian-UK bilateral shared commitment will be reported back to the UK—to Parliament or otherwise—and what format it will take.
The noble Baroness, Lady Boycott, made an excellent point about not contributing to global deforestation, legal or illegal, which ties back to this. I fully support the comments of the noble Baroness, Lady Willis of Summertown, on the testing regime.
The one area where I have struggled is around the fact that the Minister and, as we have heard, the noble Lord, Lord Cameron, have argued in the past and will continue to argue that the CPTPP does not undermine UK standards. That is fine, but the question is: if products, good or services are being delivered through this agreement in the UK, how will we ensure that the quality of the goods coming in remains at our high standards and does not undermine our internal high standards? That is why many of the amendments in this group are pertinent; it is about making sure that
analysis is done so that, one or two years down the line, that does not happen and the resources for testing are in place.
The noble Baroness, Lady Hayter, and the noble Lord, Lord Purvis of Tweed, asked for a full debate in the Commons. It would be great to see that in both Chambers, as we heard at Second Reading, in order to look at this issue. With that, I look forward to the Minister’s response.