§ Mr. Laurence RobertsonTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development what discussions she is having with EU Ministers about reforming the EU's policies towards importing goods from the third world; and if she will make a statement. [61935]
§ Clare ShortThe UK Government have been working to reduce the tariffs that apply to developing country goods entering the EU. For example, the UK played a central role in establishing the Everything But Arms initiative that will provide the 49 least developed countries with duty and quota free access to the EU for all goods except arms. In addition, the UK is pushing the EU to be as generous as possible in current economic partnership negotiations with African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries under Cotonou agreement. However, high tariffs remain on many goods of export interest to developing countries. In order to tackle such barriers, a new trade round was launched at the fourth WTO ministerial meeting in Doha in November last year386W with a pro-development agenda. The meeting resulted in agreement on the need to reduce barriers to trade in all products including agricultural ones. The UK Government are fully committed to making these commitments become a reality.