HC Deb 17 December 1998 vol 322 cc710-1W
Mr. Chope

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will make a statement on the implications for the competitiveness of electronic commerce in the United Kingdom of the decisions made at the December meeting of the Wassenaar Arrangement. [63525]

Mr. Mandelson

[holding answer 14 December 1998]: The Government are committed to making the UK the best environment in the world for electronic commerce by the end of this Parliament. Our strategy for achieving this will be set out in the forthcoming White Paper on Competitiveness. The recent agreement in the Wassenaar Agreement, which has modernised and relaxed the export controls on encryption technology, will contribute towards this strategy.