My Lords, this is a short debate but an important one as it is the first to be focused on central America for a very long time—and that is not for want of trying. I am happy to have the opportunity this evening and most grateful to all those participating in the debate, as well as to those sufficiently interested to have remained in the Chamber to listen. I welcome our relatively new Minister to his first outing on Latin America. I hope—indeed, I will make sure—that it will be the first of many. I declare interests as a former president and now vice-president of Canning House, as president of the Central America Business Council, part of the Caribbean Council, and as current vice-chairman of the Latin America and Central America All-Party Parliamentary Groups.
My intentions in asking this Question for Short Debate are: to draw attention to this important and dynamic region of the world, where we have historic as well as current links on which to build; to emphasise some of the opportunities for trade and investment in the region for UK entrepreneurs, given that the balance of trade is not in our favour at the moment; and to refer to my role as trade envoy to Panama, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic, which have been identified as target countries within the region by the Department for International Trade.
I was shocked recently to hear from the British Chambers of Commerce that only 10% of British companies export their products. I believe, therefore, that we should be working hard to encourage small and medium-sized enterprises in particular. I feel that they would find it easier to take their first steps in a relatively small country.
Central America as a region consists of seven countries: Guatemala, Belize—which, of course, is also a Commonwealth member—Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama, which, together with the Dominican Republic, have a system of integration known as SICA, of which Guatemala currently holds the pro tempore presidency. Each country may be relatively small in terms of population, but the SICA countries have a combined population of 60.7 million, a substantial market for our exports; and the population is young, dynamic and digitally aware.
I wish to emphasise, however, that, in spite of the integration system and a common language, each country has a very individual sense of identity. A UK-Central America association agreement was signed in January 2021, post Brexit, setting provisions on trade in goods and services, intellectual property and general procurement. It also includes provisions on preferential tariffs, tariff rate quotas, rules of origin and so on, to ensure continuity with the previous European Union agreement.
CABEI, the Central American Bank of Economic Integration, is the banking arm of SICA, based in Tegucigalpa in Honduras. It aims to promote the economic and social integration and development of the region across sectors such as infrastructure, renewable energy, agriculture and commerce, as well as to reduce poverty and inequality. The United Kingdom was invited to become a non-regional member of CABEI, which has recently opened a European office in Madrid. Could my noble friend the Minister tell us what the current relationship is between the UK and CABEI, given the benefits that a strong and vibrant collaboration could bring?
My Lords, I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Hooper, on securing this debate. It is a welcome and rare opportunity to debate a region of the world that is so often overlooked when it comes to foreign policy, trade, investment and security.
I recently returned from an IPU delegation to Mexico so I will focus my contribution on that country. Of course, I am aware that Mexico defines itself just as much as north as central America, although the term “Mesoamerica” encompasses Mexico as well as the central American countries. In addition, drug cartel activity and people trafficking from central America through Mexico en route to the US have implications for legitimate trade and investment. As His Majesty’s Government are currently engaged in negotiations on a free trade agreement with Mexico, a topic also covered in the helpful Library briefing for today’s debate, I hope noble Lords will agree that Mexico is relevant to this short debate. I have a number of questions for the Minister but, if he was not expecting to answer questions on Mexico today, I would be grateful if he might write to me in due course and place a copy in the Library.
First, I know that the second round of the UK-Mexico trade talks have been held but do the Government still expect them to be concluded by mid-2024, as originally announced? I ask this because I am aware that the Mexican ministry of economy has recently fired all its senior officials involved in the negotiations. Does that mean starting over again? What, if anything, does the Minister expect to be different with a completely new set of negotiators?
Secondly, and for me this is by far the most important point, I want to ask about the relationship between trade and investment and human rights. I ask the Minister to set out clearly the Government’s rationale for removing all consideration of a human rights clause from this free trade agreement, and indeed all such new agreements? The original FTA to which the UK was party as an EU member included a human rights clause, as did the continuity agreement. I for one was hoping that our bilateral agreement would go further and better than the merely declaratory clause that we had through the EU, and instead we would want to demonstrate our much-vaunted global leadership in this field and underpin the clause with a mechanism for monitoring and accountability. Sadly, on the contrary, it seems that no human rights clause will form part of the UK-Mexico FTA but that a separate, parallel human rights “dialogue” will take place. The trouble is that although we have already had two rounds of trade talks, the human rights dialogue has not even started and, as far as I know, no start date is in sight. Will the Minister please tell the House why not?
My Lords, I too congratulate my noble friend Lady Hooper on securing this short debate. Her timing is fortuitous in the light of the announcement, made by the Foreign Secretary just last Monday, that the Government will develop stronger relations with increasingly influential countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. I welcome that statement, but the only Latin American country he referenced in his speech was Brazil, and that was simply to support the idea that the UN Security Council might be reformed and make Brazil a permanent member.
I have four questions for my noble friend the Minister. First, what new measures will now be taken to cast a spotlight on Latin American countries in central America with which we have signed an association agreement, of course not forgetting Belize, which is governed by the separate CARIFORUM-UK economic partnership agreement? It was a privilege to meet the members of CARIFORUM when I was a Minister at the FCDO and attended one of its sessions. Additionally, I made ministerial visits to several other countries in central America, primarily in my role as the Prime Minister’s special representative for preventing sexual violence in conflict. I also met representatives of UK companies in business in the region. They impressed upon me how they face significant hurdles when they compete for contracts, which are then often routinely awarded to non-UK businesses that have a record of failing to deliver the kind of quality, timeliness and reliability of work that would have been provided by the UK companies.
Over a year ago, the then CEO of UK Export Finance announced that the UK was entering a new era for trade with central America. So my second question is: can my noble friend the Minister please tell the House what increase in support and advice was given, as a result of that announcement, to UK businesses seeking to secure contracts in central America? What new steps will now be taken to build upon that work? By the way, I notice that UKEF currently has an interim CEO; can my noble friend the Minister inform the House when the Government expect to make a permanent CEO appointment?
My Lords, I add my congratulations to the noble Baroness, Lady Hooper, on securing this long overdue and important debate. In addition to her service as trade envoy, she is a distinguished former honorary president of Canning House, as she mentioned. As the current holder of that position, it gave me, and all of us at Canning House, intense pleasure to award the Canning medal to her this summer, in recognition of her outstanding service to UK-Latin American relations and to Canning House. I also pay tribute to the noble Baronesses, Lady Coussins and Lady Anelay of St Johns, two formidable and steadfast advocates.
Central America is part of an increasingly important region of the world for business, and I for one would have been delighted if the noble Baroness had chosen to examine trade and industry opportunities for all of Latin America. As the excellent Michael Stott of the Financial Times reeled off at a Canning House event last week, addressing the whole of Latin America, the region has an economy of $5.5 trillion more than Japan; its area is 19.2 million square kilometres, almost as much as China and the US combined; it has 27% of the world’s forests, 30% of the fresh water and 25% of the arable land; it is home to some 650 million people, 81% of whom live in cities and towns, making it the most urbanised region in the globe after North America; it has 58% of the world’s lithium and 41% of its copper. Of course, Spanish, which is widely spoken in Latin America, is the world’s third-most spoken language. It is a region militarily at peace with itself and with an absence of war.
Latin America will be of increased importance because of resources—and, as usual, China sees the potential there. It contributed to 0% of global trade in the noughties, but it now exceeds Europe’s share and is approaching that of the US, which is declining. It is vital that the Government recognise the importance of central America—and, indeed, of Latin America in its entirety—and allocate resources accordingly. I am sure that we will hear good news of the progress on FTAs. I am very pleased that we have a DIT team that seems to mean business, but I very much endorse the question about the extent of the resources at their disposal. Last week, I met with Cristina Irving Turner, the department’s number two, and was suitably impressed. The region consists of friends, so can anything be done about high university fees, which is a real issue?
My Lords, I join your Lordships in thanking my noble friend Lady Hooper for introducing this timely debate.
I will briefly link together three themes: our scope for building up trade and investment relations with countries in central America, while also bearing in mind Brazil in Latin America; the challenges to protect the environment, to reduce poverty and to uphold human rights, as was already highlighted by the noble Baroness, Lady Coussins, and my noble friend Lady Anelay of St Johns; and, in spite of those challenges, the United Kingdom’s present opportunity to take a positive lead within a consensual international community.
In addition to the main trade in food and drink, and as correctly identified by World Bank analysis, there is now a significant potential for United Kingdom companies to export goods and services in other sectors, including those of infrastructure and clean growth. Not least, those future prospects have already inspired a partnership and memorandum of understanding between UK Export Finance and the central American Bank for Economic Integration.
Following that, for the next five years, which higher percentage figures do my noble friend the Minister and his department predict? What different pattern of exported and imported goods and services does he thus anticipate? Given that, at the moment, the lion’s share is with Costa Rica, to which my noble friend Lady Hooper has referred, to what extent does he expect a reinvigorated deployment of trade and investment affecting the United Kingdom to be spread more evenly over other central American countries? Equally, over the next five years, and considering the same future trade prospects—from infrastructure to clean growth and certain other sectors—from their separate current base, what trade percentage rises does my noble friend the Minister forecast between the United Kingdom and the principal bloc of Latin American countries, in particular Brazil?
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Viscount Waverley (CB)
My Lords, a simple premise for today’s world must surely be that entry into lesser marketplaces by midsized SMEs must be a priority—not just those markets on the beaten track nor those the preserve of big business.
Therefore, the noble Baroness, Lady Hooper, is to be supported in her endeavours in the central American region, which build on the high regard in which she is held in South America. Proponents of natural trade corridors might wish to continue the trajectory on from the Caribbean, in which the Dominican Republic sits—a part of the remit of the noble Baroness, Lady Hooper, who is a trade envoy of the Prime Minister—and continue to central America and include Mexico.
I would be curious to know the rationale behind the selection of the 20 FCDO priority countries and would be grateful if the Minister would write to me on this, along with a sense of whether trade corridors might not be a better way to go. Are the DIT and other government departments aligned, for example?
On the question of human rights, my understanding is that an introduction of human rights has been downgraded as an aspiration. Am I right in that regard?
I do not wish to be unseasonal but the view of some is that the Government have adopted a fragmented approach to trade, with no long-term vision, and are short on intrinsic strategic planning. I venture some innovative thinking and that to think holistically, away from the British trait of silo mentality, would do no harm.
A recent discussion with some clear-sighted professionals arrived at two conclusions: first, that things cannot continue as before; and, secondly, that a clearer whole-of-government vision on trade is needed, together with a fully integrated approach across Whitehall to drive global growth in key sectors.
The APPG for International Trade and Investment, which I happen to co-chair, together with the Future of UK Freight and Logistics APPG, are building on the principle of identifying trade corridors. We will be conducting a review of all aspects of the United Kingdom’s export promotion strategy, looking at the role of government, the chamber of commerce movement and regional promotional bodies, including regional champions such as Midlands Engine and Northern Powerhouse, and LEPs, to name but a few. We need the rationale and criteria for trade envoy selection to be explained as some strategically important countries have none.
For the record, these are in addition to the empowerment of intra-UK trade, including supply chain issues. Through my engagement with the International Trade & Investment Center—ITIC—of Washington DC and the International Trade Council, I am working on making available the provision of information and dissemination of multiple datasets, using overlays for analytics of markets and supply chains. These allow for forecasting and prediction of market behaviour, thus allowing for a deepening of relations with New World countries.
My Lords, respecting the time constraints in the gap, I have three broad points to make. The first is on the need for international trade and investment for this country. Increasing trade is of the highest importance generally and in the dire economic circumstances that we are in in the moment—and, particularly, because of our Brexit responsibilities. Secondly, as part of this, surely, we should co-operate with international development banks which cover regions. They have the experience, the money and the will—CABEI in central America in particular.
Next, let us do something about it. In August 2021, the then CEO of UK Export Finance, Louis Taylor, signed an understanding with CABEI to co-operate—well over a year ago. He chose to describe it as a robust means of co-operation. What has happened, and what is going to happen this coming year, 2023?
Lastly, surely, we should co-operate with the areas in which we have long-term interests. Belize is a central American country that is a member of the Commonwealth, and it would welcome our participation. After Australia and India—one through complications and the other through delay—let us see action, if not this day, then at least this coming year. Central America and the Panama Canal is a centre of world focus economically. We should be there with them.
I am told that I am remiss in not having declared my interest as a trade envoy in Panama, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic. I thought that I had made it quite clear—but if it is necessary, I hereby declare an interest.
Well, there is no harm in embellishing the point. The noble Baroness, Lady Hooper, has been rightly congratulated on bringing this debate to us on a neglected issue, but one that she does not neglect. She leads for us on this.
I am a member of the Selkirk Merchant Company, established in 1694 and one of the two remaining elements of the Company of Scotland—I am sure that the noble Earl, Lord Dundee, is aware of this. If the Darien scheme on the Isthmus of Panama had gone differently for Scotland, the story of our nation would have gone differently. Our history as a country is entwined with that region, but we continue to punch below our potential weight for our trading relationship.
The noble Baroness, Lady Hooper, introduced the debate so well and set the scene. I have been very fortunate to visit Latin America with her, and with the noble Baroness, Lady Coussins. The closest that I get to accompanying a royal party is whenever I accompany the noble Baroness, Lady Hooper, on a visit in Latin America, or to a Latin American embassy. She does us credit.
The focus of this debate, however, should be on what the Government are doing to promote businesses to take advantage of the potential that is so obviously there. It was referenced earlier that Canning House’s LatAm Outlook process has been illustrative in highlighting the real potential for central America and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean. As it puts it, this is a market of 45.5 million people with a GDP of over $800 billion. It outlines key areas where there is a market and where we should take advantage of that market. This is a region that is demonstrating leadership in green economies, for example, and an eagerness to collaborate with international partners such as the UK. In particular, it highlighted an area that I thought was really interesting: it is seeking companies with expertise in project management and delivery of infrastructure projects to take advantage of that green investment. This is where UK businesses should have an opportunity. Costa Rica is receiving a $700 million loan from the IMF, so there are funds available.
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With all that as background, with our embassies in-country at the ready, with the Department for International Trade providing back-up services such as UK Export Finance, British expertise, helplines and roadshows, and with an active trade commissioner based in the wider Latin America region, it seems to me that the stage is set for progress, especially in priority sectors such as education—edtech in particular—infrastructure such as airports, roads and water treatment, and services, where I want to highlight the issue of green finance.
In saying that, I appreciate that central American countries are still recovering from the consequences of the Covid pandemic, just as we are, while natural disasters, increased by climate change, have taken their toll; for example, in Honduras. I appreciate also, and I understand that others may speak to these, the issues that have to be faced, such as human rights abuses, violence and corruption, which certainly exist in some of these countries.
In the few minutes that I have left, I shall touch on the three countries for which I act as trade envoy, and which I visited in that capacity in May this year. Happily, I had been to them all previously, which has been an advantage. I shall start with Costa Rica. When we think of Costa Rica, we may think of delicious pineapples and other tropical fruits, and even coffee, but very few realise that medical devices are Costa Rica’s main export, or that AstraZeneca recently opened its splendid regional headquarters in San José, the capital.
We may also think of Costa Rica in terms of ecotourism, without realising that Costa Rica’s green credentials extend to an exemplary reforestation programme and that it won the first Duke of Cambridge Earthshot award in the “protect and restore nature” category last year. The support from its then President—incidentally, a former Chevening scholar—for COP 26 was very much welcomed by this country, especially my right honourable friend Alok Sharma, so British companies would be pushing at an open door in the whole environmental field, especially perhaps in the area of green finance.
In Panama, where many major British firms are already established in the free zone area, I was able to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Foreign Minister on clean and sustainable growth. We had fascinating meetings between the Panama Canal Authority and British companies about the recycling of freshwater in the canal locks, and other technical matters that we hope will lead to further collaboration. Education, particularly edtech, is also a top priority in Panama.
I must mention Buddi, a British invention that was originally a wristband to monitor elderly people but is now established in El Salvador by its inventor as an electronic monitoring device in prisons, and looks set fair as a project to be taken up now in Panama. In relation to Panama, perhaps the Government could also be persuaded to support the Panamanian candidate to be secretary-general of the International Maritime Organization here in London, as a new appointment is about to materialise.
Last but by no means least, I refer to the Dominican Republic, the fastest-growing economy in the region. Last month saw the eighth Dominican Republic Week in the UK, when the largest, most senior and most diverse delegation of business leaders and investors came to London and Edinburgh to forge new, and enhance existing, links—a most successful event. Again, there are huge possibilities in the education sector and in infrastructure projects, especially water treatment, while we have much to learn about the successful management of free zones from the Dominican Republic.
I understand that we have slightly more time than originally anticipated so there are two unexpected facts that I wish to mention. The first is that I discovered that more mozzarella cheese is imported into the Dominican Republic from the United Kingdom than from Italy. Think of that.
Secondly, a meeting with the Minister of Industry and Commerce revealed the problem, caused by climate change, of the sargassum seaweed that is invading the Caribbean, fouling the beautiful beaches and having a major impact on the thriving tourist industry in the Dominican Republic and elsewhere. Upon inquiry, I learned that both the National Oceanography Centre at Southampton University and Exeter University are working on this issue, and that a plan is under way to take a group of British experts and companies to the Dominican Republic to discuss ways of solving the problem and perhaps recycling this noxious weed for energy, cardboard and other useful purposes.
My time is up. I wish to say simply that much has been achieved and, if the Government could now free up the visa requirements affecting those countries and encourage more direct flights, we could be well on the way to doubling that 10% figure for companies exporting to central America.
I am familiar with the standard line that establishing a free trade agreement then puts us in a better position to raise human rights concerns with new partners, but this seems a very weak chicken-and-egg sort of argument, and it clearly did not apply in any case when we were happy to include a human rights clause in our previous deals. A more robust and defensible stance would be that being up front on human rights would be a stronger incentive for trade and investment. At the very least, I would welcome a date for the start of a genuine human rights dialogue with Mexico, but I also hope that the Minister will agree to take this issue back and reconsider incorporating a human rights clause in the negotiations.
Should anyone be in any doubt, human rights in Mexico is a critical problem that needs an awful lot more than mere dialogue; it needs urgent action with strong international leverage behind it. Our embassy team in Mexico does sterling work, continuously raising human rights issues and individual cases and contributing to training and other technical assistance. Over 106,000 people are currently known to have disappeared in Mexico—“disappeared” is largely a euphemism for kidnapped and/or murdered. These are mainly journalists, human rights defenders and environmental and indigenous campaigners. Perpetrators enjoy almost complete impunity. In addition, there are hundreds of thousands of forcibly displaced people, some of them having been forcibly removed by companies seeking access to natural resources.
This brings me to my next question: does the Minister have any information on whether any British companies are or have been involved in such displacement activity? What specific measures or programmes does the DIT have in place to ensure that UK companies doing, or hoping to do, business in Mexico comply with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, sometimes known as the Ruggie principles? On a related point, what happened to the Pacific Alliance, of which Mexico is a member and with which our Government have said in the past that they were committed to deepening our involvement? For example, do the UK Government still support what they used to call high value campaigns—HVCs—to support British companies in exporting and investing across the sectors where UK industry could add most value?
Finally, can the Minister update the House on what language and cultural support his department provides to UK companies looking to build export growth in central America and Mexico? How many DIT officials and negotiators are competent in Spanish, or are taking Spanish courses at the FCDO language centre?
My third question ventures into the fields covered by trade commissioners and trade envoys. I would be grateful if my noble friend put on the record the respective roles and lines of accountability for both trade commissioners and trade envoys. The Latin American trade commissioner is based in São Paulo, and his deputy is located in Mexico City. Of course, as my noble friend Lady Hooper mentioned, they also cover the Caribbean region. That is quite a stretch for their enormous amount of work. My noble friend Lady Hooper declared her work, for which she is very highly respected, as trade envoy for Costa Rica, Panama and the Dominican Republic. Select Committees of this House would benefit greatly from hearing from such experts as trade envoys.
However, I have to inform the House that, when the International Relations and Defence Committee, which I chair, sought to take evidence from one of the trade envoys to Africa in the course of our inquiry into the UK’s relations with the countries of sub-Saharan Africa, the Government refused permission for them to give evidence. That surprised us, to say the least. We had hoped to benefit from learning about their work and achievements on behalf of the UK. I would therefore be grateful if my noble friend could tell the House whether the Government’s policy of preventing trade envoys giving evidence to the committees of this House has changed. If it has not, will they consider changing it? If my noble friend is not in a position to answer any of my questions tonight, I would be grateful if he wrote to me and gave a copy of the letter to the House.
My final question refers back to comments made by both my noble friend Lady Hooper and the noble Baroness, Lady Coussins, whom I hope I may call a noble friend. Can my noble friend the Minister reassure me that all those who give advice on trade and investment to companies on behalf of the UK Government will bear in mind the human rights records of countries in central America when doing so? Will he reassure me that they are fully informed of the importance of the Ruggie principles?
I am partly Norwegian, so I know that the Norwegian foreign service expects its ambassadors to be front-line salesmen for Norwegian industry and businesses. Can the Minister consider prioritising information and training for His Majesty’s ambassadors to play a role in growing our exports?
It is not only for the Government to increase their activity and ambition in the areas that earlier speakers have noted and that my successors will note; business must also engage fully with those challenges. There are opportunities for business in many areas, including pharma, infrastructure, food and drink, healthcare, energy, finance and especially fintech, agriculture, mining and education, among others. I want to impress on business the need to visit and visit and visit. A long-term commitment and approach is needed, because nothing else will work; this is not the area for quick results. When I was the lord mayor, all too often I heard the refrain, in different parts of the world, “We love you, Brits, and we love your products, but we don’t see you here often enough”. My experience of travelling internationally throughout my career is that there is enormous good will towards the UK and UK business. I also point out that the smaller countries in central America represent an ideal opportunity for SMEs, a potential that the noble Baroness, Lady Hooper, acknowledged.
Despite a reputation for inefficiency and procurement opacity, there are many ways in which international expertise can meet the needs of Latin American countries. Latin America—including, not least, some countries in central America—continues to be a region that carries risks with security and corruption, all of which can be managed with careful planning and due diligence. As someone recently said to me, it is easy to overestimate the risks and underestimate the rewards. I believe that Britain now has the strictest anti-corruption legislation in the world, and the right person at the right time might be able to suggest to a potential client that business with UK firms speaks to the highest standards and governance. If the DIT wants to build a roadshow to talk to businesses and trade associates about the opportunities in central America—or, indeed, in wider Latin America—I would be willing to join that enterprise and crusade.
In conclusion, Far Eastern business has the problem of an increasingly assertive China on its doorstep, while eastern Europe has the problem of an aggressive and vindictive Russia on its doorstep. I say to noble Lords, as well as to government, industry and business, that now is the time to engage with the huge potential of Latin America. We must get on with this urgently.
Then, to help facilitate this process at all, what assessment have the Government made of certain measures which they might pursue, ranging from encouraging investment, perhaps through regional as well as central banks, to focused, well-advertised and adapted government incentive schemes to be taken up by United Kingdom business and industry?
The EU-Mercosur deal should have begun in 2019 but instead has remained on hold due to European concerns about Amazon deforestation and Mr Bolsonaro’s authoritarian rule in Brazil. His recent defeat, officials claim, has removed those obstacles, while President-elect Lula has said that a trade deal could be established within six months between the European Union and South America’s Mercosur bloc, which covers Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Bolivia and Chile. Meanwhile, regarding our own enhanced trade partnership proposals with Brazil, Lula has requested that the United Kingdom should revise the component which would impose restrictions on importing Brazilian meat products, especially beef.
If handled in the right way, Brazil’s change of regime can cause dramatic changes for the better, benefiting not just that country itself but also most others within both central and Latin America. These include preservation of the Amazon rather than its piecemeal destruction and a much-improved level of respect for human rights, democracy and the rule of law. Both the United Kingdom and the European Union have a key role to play. This begins with establishing good relations with the new regime in Brazil.
Does my noble friend the Minister therefore agree, first, that in order to achieve these more important wider objectives, we should now renegotiate our ETP terms so that through their revised acceptability the UK starts to gain the confidence of the Brazilian Administration? Secondly, does he assent that thereafter, in co-operation with the EU and countries within both central and Latin America, including Brazil, we should emphasise the priority of this shared and wider agenda? Thirdly, does he concur that, along with other states, the more the United Kingdom is seen and known in South America to put that agenda’s ethical and mutually advantageous international aims first, the more its own, as well as trade and investment levels of those other states, will also increase, diversify and consolidate?
That should greatly assist companies searching out and forecasting new markets and UK entities seeking to validate their supply chains, understand market pricing, monitor competitors and assist in locating priority investment FDI targets. Additionally, many emerging countries welcome issue focus, often in the format of round tables and implementing public/private sector workshops on capacity building, tax policy and fiscal economics, with practical initiatives that can make a real difference. Stakeholder engagement is key when on a course to win friends.
It is about co-ordinating individual local content development programmes that can be adopted by investors and government agencies, combined with utilising tax and customs data and the like, to which I have referred, with skills-based professional development and gap analyses.
In concluding, there is an urgent need for government to promote the provisions and benefits globally of the enabling electronic trade process currently on its legislative journey in the UK. What is being done in that regard?
The next area it highlighted was the Inter-American Development Bank, the Central American Bank for Economic Integration—or CABEI, as the noble Baroness referenced—and the Corporación Andina de Fomento. In my view, if the UK took the opportunity to become an early shareholder in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and be part of it from the outset, controversial as it is now, the case to be part of those as willing partners is equally strong. With Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador and Guatemala investing in rail infrastructure, there are enormous opportunities for the UK here, as well as in water and sanitation projects such as the Dominican upgrades to their infrastructure. The list goes on. The opportunities are there.
The challenge we have now is how to meet that opportunity given that in some respects—regrettably from these Benches—we are now a competitor with the EU and cannot take advantage of wider EU opportunities. Of course we have the rollover association agreement which the noble Baroness referenced, but it is now a decade old. I would be very interested to hear from the Minister whether there is consideration of moving the association agreement into an FTA with central America.
One area where we lost in the move from the EU association agreement to the UK stand-alone one was the removal of the number of committees and sub-committees that were part of the EU agreement that we were party to. There were the Board on Trade and Sustainable Development, which is so critical in that region, the committee on SPS and the very important committees on technical barriers to trade, customs and rules of origin, public procurement, market access and intellectual property rights. Interestingly, there was also a civil society forum. All these have met the EU through CIRCABC, as it calls it, within this year. I would be grateful if the Minister could say whether there is any equivalent to those committees in our trade dialogue with central America, especially on civil society and technical barriers to trade. All these are fundamental if we are to see the potential grow.
Reference has been made to Mexico. I have a question about that but, first, I want to say that I am grateful as the Lib Dem spokesperson to receive correspondence from the Secretary of State’s office with very welcome updates on negotiations. The new Secretary of State has been very consistent in providing this, for which I am grateful. She also offered the International Agreements Committee of this House private briefings with the chief negotiator after each round, which is fairly innovative and, I hope, signals openness. I served with great pleasure under the chairmanship of the noble Baroness, Lady Anelay, at the start of the inquiries. I could sense her frustration around trade envoys, which was shared around the table. Hopefully, the sign from the new Secretary of State is one of openness, which we can take advantage of with regard to trade envoys.
It was interesting to hear from the noble Baroness, Lady Coussins, that it is not just Mexico that fires its top people in charge of trade, as I think I am now on my seventh Minister. I am not saying that they were all fired, of course—quite the reverse. I hope that there is no disruption to the Mexico agreement, but clarity on when we can expect to see it finalised will be important. With Anne-Marie Trevelyan as Secretary of State, on the India agreement, having a deadline to work towards was vital; now with Kemi Badenoch as Secretary of State, deadlines are not helpful. Which is it? I would be grateful to know what the Minister thinks is a realistic time for us to see something taken forward with Mexico.
The final issue I wish to raise, which has been raised a number of times, is human rights. Since I have been covering trade in this House, the Government have always said that trade is not at the expense of human rights—that we have tried and tried and will continue to try to get a trade and human rights policy and real clarity as to what role human rights will play. If the noble Viscount, Lord Waverley, is correct that this has been downgraded, and if the noble Baroness, Lady Coussins, is correct that dialogues are not even taking place, that is an unwelcome sign. I very much hope that the Minister can give us a positive response, and that when it comes to critical areas of trade with this region, human rights and relationships with civil society in the region will be at the core. We will not be able to see trade grow in a sustainable way unless people are involved in that process as well.