HC Deb 10 June 1997 vol 295 cc943-4
15. Ms Shipley

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement about the measures taken in his Department in co-operation with the Department of Trade and Industry to promote Britain's export trade. [1172]

Mr. Robin Cook

The Foreign Office works hand in hand with the Department of Trade and Industry on export promotion. Together, we have established a new export forum which will consider how to improve our export promotion initiatives.

Ms Shipley

Is my right hon. Friend aware that, among France, Germany, Italy and ourselves, Britain is the only country to have experienced a fall in its share of exports to the tiger economies and in its share of total world exports?

Mr. Cook

My hon. Friend makes her point tellingly—[Laughter.] I thought that it was superbly researched. It is precisely because of the factors that she described that we made promoting exports and boosting jobs high priorities in our Foreign Office mission statement. I am currently exploring with Lord Simon at the Department of Trade and Industry how we can increase the exchange between business and the Foreign Office to ensure that, both abroad and at home, we have business expertise. I hope to make an announcement before the House rises for the summer on increasing the number of business men on short-term secondments at our posts abroad.

Mr. Baldry

The right hon. Gentleman knows that, excluding Japan, we export more per head of population than any other country in the world. It is, of course, good news that the Foreign Office still intends to promote exports, but how does the right hon. Gentleman intend to reconcile, in many markets, our need to promote exports with the much higher profile to be given to promoting human rights?

Mr. Cook

Of course the hon. Gentleman is right to say that, historically, back into the previous century, Britain has exported a much higher proportion of GDP than many other nations. We have been living off that inheritance, and over the past 10 years the growth in our exports has not been as fast as that of our competitor nations, which have proved more competitive.

Moreover, during that period many of those nations have observed a regard for human rights that outstrips the regard that Britain has shown. I see no contradiction between our twin commitments to ensure that we boost Britain's exports to free economies and its contribution to supporting free democracies. It is Conservative Members who must explain the £800 million loss that they made by exporting arms and other machinery to Saddam Hussein.

Mr. Sheerman

Does my right hon. Friend agree that it is a good sales pitch to have a good human rights record? In the course of his duties, will he do an audit—a proper assessment—of best practice in our outposts around the world? Many of us have experience of our embassies. Some of them in some countries are absolutely excellent, but others are not. I hesitate to name names, but I will mention Berlin, where our embassy is difficult to contact and is hardly ever open to British business men. I hope that we can examine best practice and try to spread it.

Mr. Cook

I hope that our embassy in Berlin will be open in time for the transfer of government. It will be a prestigious building—one of the prime architectural designs of the century. [Interruption.] My hon. Friend made a serious point. He raised an important issue for the many millions of people who work in British exporting industries and made the important point that there may be good practice that succeeds in some embassies which we need to transfer to others. That is one of the reasons we are anxious to take more business men with expertise in the export industries to some of those embassies. They will bring a culture of business application, and share with the diplomats who will remain behind after they have gone the knowledge of what business needs from our posts abroad, so that it can be provided better.