- Motion to Regret
- 8:10 pm
- Moved by
- That this House regrets that, in agreeing a continuity agreement between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Kingdom of Morocco, laid before the House on 20 December 2019, Her Majesty’s Government failed to consult adequately with the people of Western Sahara; and calls on the Government to ensure a trade agreement conforms to international law in relation to the people of Western Sahara.Special attention drawn to the treaty by the European Union Committee, 4th Report
- My Lords, I shall speak about the UK-Morocco association agreement. I also intend to make some remarks about the underlying issue here: Parliament’s continuing inability to scrutinise UK trade deals in a meaningful way. As your Lordships’ House will be aware, although there will be no direct parliamentary involvement in the UK, a UK-EU trade deal needs the approval of some 38 individual EU national parliaments and regional assemblies before it can come into force; and if we are able to negotiate a free trade deal with the USA, it will come into force only if it is approved by Congress—both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The UK-Morocco Association Agreement is a good example of why the current situation is, to my mind, untenable.The UK-Morocco association agreement was laid before Parliament on 20 December 2019 and, as it is a treaty, it is subject to the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010. However, it is a negative instrument, so the only meaningful debate possible is the “nuclear option” of a vote to strike down the instrument in either of the Houses of Parliament within the statutory period, which has now passed—a piece of Gilbertian nonsense if ever there was one. The UK-Morocco association agreement is one of the Government’s continuity agreements designed to replace EU trade treaties after Brexit. It replaces the EU-Morocco association agreement, as well as the accompanying EU-Morocco dispute settlement mechanism agreement. The Lords European Union Committee drew the agreement to the special attention of the House, with particular reference to Western Sahara as, in the view of the committee, the inclusion of that territory“raises important questions, especially about how the UK should balance its commitment to Western Sahara’s ‘undetermined’ status.”Western Sahara is categorised as a non-self-governing territory under chapter XI of the Charter of the United Nations. A 1975 International Court of Justice ruling recognised Western Sahara’s right to self-determination and, in 1991, the UN launched a mission to hold a referendum for the Sahrawi people to decide whether it should be an independent country or become part of Morocco. That referendum has still not been held. The EU signed a trade treaty with Morocco in 2012 which covered Western Sahara. The European Court of Justice has twice ruled, in 2016 and 2018, that Western Sahara is a “separate and distinct” territory from Morocco under international law, and that no agreement with Morocco can be applied to the territory of Western Sahara without the consent of the Sahrawi people.
- 8:15 pm
- The only statement we have on record about how the Government intend to involve Parliament in future trade deals is the Command Paper that was produced by the Government during the passage of the Trade Bill that was lost just before the last general election. The Command Paper was a rather unsubtle attempt to head off support for an amendment to the Bill, which this House subsequently inserted by a large majority, which proposed a system under which committees of both Houses would take on the responsibility for approving mandates for trade agreements, reviewing progress, and making recommendations to Parliament for the approval of trade deals—a system in which the Commons would of course have the determining voice. Despite the fact that virtually every other major country in the world welcomes the involvement of its parliament in approving treaties and trade deals, why do this Government not wish to concede any authority for trade deals to Parliament? The Command Paper says all the right things, such as:
- “the Government is clear that we must have a transparent and inclusive future trade policy that delivers for all parts of the United Kingdom”,
- that
- “there must be a strong and effective role for Parliament in scrutinising our trade policy and free trade agreements”,
- and:
- “We recognise that the best free trade agreements will be those that draw on the extensive expertise and experience of both the House of Commons and House of Lords and have its full support.”
- But, at the same time, the Government remain of the view that making, amending and withdrawing from treaties are functions of the Executive, which are carried out in exercise of the royal prerogative. I thought we took the view that the royal prerogative power should never trump the powers of Parliament, particularly after the Supreme Court ruling this summer.
- Trade negotiations are no longer just a matter of the import and export of physical goods. They are about societal rights, environmental rights, good regulation, the protection of standards, the provision of healthcare and the securing of investment protection. There are trade-offs to be made between all these issues, which means that key societal values are at risk. All treaties dilute our sovereignty to some extent.
- As I have argued today in relation to Western Sahara, trade agreements can also engage with geopolitical policies and human rights; these are surely matters in which parliaments have a right to be directly involved. The public are entitled to know what the Government are doing in their name. Ironically, with STAG and sub-groups, it could be argued that the Government are going out of their way to engage with the general public and using that engagement to avoid the fact that they are deliberately side-lining parliamentary scrutiny. Surely, we in Parliament are duty bound to have a role in scrutinising what the Government intend to do, and there will be considerable added value in ensuring that both Houses are fully engaged with trade negotiations and scrutinising what the Executive are doing.
- In truth, there is very little difference between us. The Government say that they want to draw on the expertise of Parliament, via a close relationship with specific parliamentary committees in each House. We say the same. But we would like Parliament to operate a modern approach to the approval of trade agreements, with proper roles identified for the Executive and for Parliament, and a system which is appropriate for our representative democratic system.
- The trade Bill is due to be introduced—or perhaps I should say reintroduced—shortly, so we can run these arguments again. It would, however, be much better if the Government asked the International Trade Committee in the Commons to lead on this matter, in concert with the soon-to-be formed treaties committee here in the Lords, and for these committees to be responsible for advising their respective Houses on the three-legged stool of mandating, reporting and recommending the approval of trade treaties.
- As the case of the UK-Morocco association agreement shows, there is a role for the parliamentary scrutiny of trade treaties which can add value. Just about every other Government in the world involve their parliament; why is the “mother of parliaments” being left on the sidelines? I beg to move.
- My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Stevenson of Balmacara, for tabling this regret Motion. He has raised some very important issues about the process for considering trade agreements with which we would concur.I say at the outset that I have huge respect for the people of Morocco. Theirs is a wonderful country to visit and it feels very much a part of Europe. But with that international standing comes a responsibility to respect international legal judgments and to respect and promote democracy.This year marks the 45th anniversary of the occupation of the Western Sahara by Morocco. I want to pay tribute to the work of the Earl of Winchilsea and Nottingham, who was a Back-Bench Liberal, and then Liberal Democrat, Peer for over 20 years until 1997, and who campaigned strongly to promote the interests of the Sahrawi people of the Western Sahara, many of whom became refugees.As the noble Lord, Lord Stevenson, said, in 1975 an International Court of Justice ruling recognised Western Sahara’s right to self-determination. In 1991, the United Nations promised a referendum for the people in Western Sahara to decide whether they wished to be an independent country or whether they preferred to become part of Morocco. That referendum—as the noble Lord, Lord Stevenson, pointed out—has never taken place.Further, in its World Report 2020, Human Rights Watch stated:“Moroccan authorities systematically prevent gatherings in the Western Sahara supporting Sahrawi self-determination, obstruct the work of some local human rights nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), including by blocking their legal registration”.Could the Minister tell the House what discussions Her Majesty’s Government have had with Morocco regarding safeguarding the capacity of NGOs to work effectively in the Western Sahara?
- My Lords, I admired the stoicism of the noble Lord, Lord Stevenson, as he sat waiting for his eagerly awaited speech in your Lordships’ Chamber for such a long period, while what I can describe only as a lot of wet fish filibustering went on during the preceding proceedings. Then, lo and behold, the noble Lord, Lord Shipley, gets up and gives us another barrel of wet fish off the coast of Morocco.All that said, while congratulating the noble Lord, Lord Stevenson, on his interesting speech, I have decided to make myself his Official Opposition, as noble Lords can see in this crowded Chamber tonight. That is, I regret this regret Motion very much indeed, first, because of its lack of procedural timeliness and, secondly, in case perceived messages coming from your Lordships’ House during this debate harm Anglo-Moroccan relations and the perception of other countries on the north African-Mediterranean littoral which are vital to our security, such as Algeria and Tunisia.On my first point, Labour did not, I think, at any stage in either place try to force a proper debate or find a way to get the issue raised during the objection period for this excellent UK-Morocco association agreement, which ended on 11 February. The simple facts on the ground are that the agreement, under our procedures, is now deemed to be ratified. The debate on the regret Motion is therefore no more than a bit of interesting virtue signalling and has absolutely no effect on what has happened with this excellent agreement. We must recognise the facts on the ground: the Moroccan Government are in charge of the Western Sahara and have been since the hopelessly failed decolonisation by the Spanish of the area in decades past. What a muddle the Spanish made of that whole process.It is not just this House that wishes to have a trade association with Morocco; the EU—our neighbours and friends—has also canonised, recognised and re-recognised the reality on the ground in its recent agreements with Morocco. This is despite the fact that the Spanish—I should not have got myself going on the Spanish—still occupy two areas. I am not quite certain what they are properly described as. Enclaves? Exclaves? They are Spanish city states on the north African coast, on Moroccan territory, which Morocco wants back—and quite rightly too. They are called Ceuta and Melilla. The last of those two enclaves/exclaves/city states on the north African shore still has a statue of Generalissimo Franco standing. There is not one of those in Spain, but it certainly signifies the Spanish attitude and pinpoints the strangeness of their attitude to British Gibraltar in comparison.