§ Mrs. Curtis-ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on the inclusion of the Singapore issues in trade negotiations. [156328]
§ Mr. Mike O'BrienThe Government believe that there are arguments that it is important for developed and developing countries alike to reduce bureaucracy on cross border trade (trade facilitation), to encourage a climate which facilitates foreign direct investment, to promote economic growth through fair competition and to encourage transparency in the procurement of public goods and services to help reduce corruption and increase good governance. However, we have made clear to our European Community partners that the UK prefers not to insist on including negotiations on investment and competition within the WTO Doha Development Agenda if doing so would jeopardise the DDA as a whole, given the benefits we believe a successful trade round could bring particularly to developing countries.