§ Lord Juddasked Her Majesty's Government:
Why, if their review of overseas aid tying policy has demonstrated there would be marginal benefits of any degree to the United Kingdom economy from unilateral untying of aid (H.L. Deb., 31st October, WA 24) they are not immediately taking steps to untie it.
§ Baroness Chalker of WallaseyAlthough we remain convinced that untied aid would be in the best interests of donors and developing countries, the review sets out the arguments in favour of maintaining current aid tying policies. Present policy and practice minimise the potential costs of tying by favouring British goods and services only where these offer value for money. Any move towards unilateral untying would yield few efficiency gains for the development programme and would bring the UK little commercial benefit.
We intend therefore to maintain our overall aid tying policies and procedures, while pursuing multilateral 90WA untying and the opportunities for greater value for money identified in the study.