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Ms Diane Abbott (Hackney, North and Stoke Newington): My right hon. Friend will be aware of the great concern in the Caribbean about bananas, and the recent adverse decision of the World Trade Organisation. Will she assure the House that the Government will do everything possible to secure an equitable outcome on bananas, which are so important for the economies of many Caribbean countries?
Clare Short: I can give my hon. Friend that absolute assurance. She will know that the World Trade Organisation's ruling was disappointing, but not as bad as it might have been. We are now reviewing the situation, to apply for a waiver so that the Caribbean has a long enough period to make sustainable arrangements.
My proposal, which I have started to discuss with some representatives of the Caribbean banana industry, is that they might go for the niche market of organic bananas. The small farmers of the Caribbean are in competition with vast banana plantations that use masses of pesticides. The big banana-importing countries such as Sweden and Germany are very much in favour of healthy, pesticide-free bananas. There are other developments to be taken into account, but that might be a market and part of the answer for the Caribbean. Some people are prepared to pay a higher price for a better quality of banana.
We are seized of the importance of my hon. Friend's argument, and will do everything in our power to help. We are bound by history and duty to ensure that the Caribbean does not end up in a devastating situation. I shall be happy to talk to my hon. Friend about that later, but I must get on now.
There must be coherence between all aspects of policy. It is no good relying on development assistance and then adopting trade policies that cause impoverishment across the world. For example, massive subsidies to European farmers have increased the world supply of food, lowering the prices that agricultural exporters from developing countries can receive on the global market. Development assistance is then needed to help poor farmers to diversify out of crops in which they might have had a comparative advantage.
That is crazy economics. My Department, which has been created to help ensure that all our policies towards developing countries take us in the same direction, is adding its voice to the pressure building up for reform of the common agricultural policy. We are studying in detail the impact of the current regime on developing countries. We shall identify the reforms that will benefit them as well as our consumers and taxpayers. We shall need allies to ensure that the necessary reforms are carried through.
It follows from what I said earlier that we want to see a particular emphasis in all our development work on human development.
Clare Short:
I will give way in a few minutes. I must get on, because time is pressing and many hon. Members want to speak.
We want an emphasis on human development, and that is why we announced in Denver at the G7 summit--or G8 summit, I am not sure which; at the G7 plus one summit--both that all our future support for the special programme of assistance for Africa would be untied, and that we would increase by 50 per cent. over the next three years our commitment of bilateral aid to basic education, basic health care and the provision of safe drinking water in Africa.
Mr. Cash:
The right hon. Lady so far has not mentioned debt relief. She may remember that, in the previous Parliament, I tabled an early-day motion, which attracted about 300 signatures--including hers, I think--relating to the question of debt relief. Nor has she yet mentioned the heavily indebted poor countries initiative. Is she aware that the World bank does not regard debt relief as a poverty issue? Does she have any comment on that, and will she press the World bank to regard debt relief as a poverty issue of fundamental importance to the future of developing countries?
Clare Short:
I have talked about the importance of debt relief and the HIPC initiative on many occasions in the House. The hon. Gentleman will know that Britain under our Government and the previous Government--the very forward position on debt relief that was taken is one of the few things for which I credit the previous Government--has of course cancelled its own debts in regard to the poorest countries and set a good record. We are doing all in our power to mobilise international opinion to get much faster progress. We believe that that is essential.
I agree that debt relief is linked to poverty eradication. We do not just cancel debt for any old dictatorship that is oppressing its poor. It has to be part of a process of reform that will benefit the needy and the poor. They are the ones who suffer the consequences of debt. The reason for cancellation is to benefit the poor.
I do not think that the hon. Member for Stone is fair when he says that the World bank does not understand the matter. I have had two meetings with the president of the World bank since we formed our Government. It is signing up to the DAC poverty eradication targets and we are talking about how they can be entrenched in the World bank system of management to ensure that the World bank is part of the mobilising of international political opinion to achieve our objective. I must get on; I am conscious of the time. I do not intend to take many more interventions. So many hon. Members want to speak.
As well as strengthening partnerships with and within developing countries, we want to engage more actively not only with other bilateral donors but with the international organisations through which half our development programme is channelled--about 40 per cent. is channelled through the European Union and another 15 per cent. through the World bank and other UN agencies. Indeed, for many countries, our principal contribution will be by way of the support that we provide in that way. Obviously, we cannot have a bilateral programme in every country.
I hope that the benefits of such partnerships will be felt by all developing countries, not just those in which we have a substantial programme. We need to create optimistic models of development, so that people living in countries whose Governments lack a commitment to poverty eradication can point to their neighbours and demand similar progress at home.
I want to conclude by referring to one further type of poverty which blights the whole world, and which we must also work to eliminate. It might even be the key to unlocking all the others.
It is a poverty of the imagination, which will not recognise that poverty elimination is achievable, affordable and in all our interests. It is both right and in our self-interest to create a stable and secure world in which economic, political, trading and cultural links flourish, and in which all sections of the population in all parts of the world will have a role to play. We need to develop a new spirit of optimism, and we need to keep rekindling that optimism by demonstrating measurable progress year by year as we move towards the elimination of poverty.
For our country, Mr. Deputy Speaker--I apologise, because I think that I have been calling you Madam Speaker--I want to help to create a new form of patriotism. Out of our complex history--all the bad and good of it, and the role it leaves us with on the international stage--I want us to do all we can to mobilise the political will for poverty elimination. The tide is turning in the right way. We have a chance of a reformed and more effective UN, a better World bank, a Lome renegotiation that embraces the DAC targets of the partnership approach, and a revitalised Commonwealth. If Britain takes on the role of mobilising the political will to achieve those aims, then could not the people of Britain be proud of their country?
I believe that the objectives I have outlined will be shared by the House and by the vast majority of our constituents. They made it clear at the election that they wanted to see an end to growing inequality in this country and an increase in social justice. That lies at the heart of our national agenda, and we are also determined to see it lie at the heart of our international agenda.
Mr. Alastair Goodlad (Eddisbury):
I wish to thank the Secretary of State for International Development and the business managers for arranging this debate so early in the parliamentary Session. It addresses subjects of enormous interest to us all, as the attendance in the House today bears witness. The debate is an opportunity for the Opposition to reaffirm our commitment to overseas development and to those countries and their people in the Commonwealth and beyond who need and receive assistance. I shall touch on the areas of continuity and agreement with the Secretary of State and also the potentially contentious subjects for the Government's review.
The Government have already accepted many of the targets set by their predecessors. Perhaps the most important is the commitment for Britain to work with our overseas partners to halve the number of people living in absolute poverty by 2015. That is an ambitious target, but one that we believe to be achievable and we expect that the Government will live up to the determination that we expressed. It remains our aim that the poorest countries should have more trade, better government and less debt, as those are the keys which will unlock the doors to escape poverty and achieve prosperity.
We want the Government to continue projects that promote sound political and economic policies, provide improved education, health and family planning services, and encourage sustainable economic development. Throughout this Parliament, we shall seek to ensure that the measures taken by the Department of International Development serve those purposes as they should. My hon. Friend the Member for Croydon, South (Mr. Ottaway) highlighted the subject of population and received a positive response from the Secretary of State. As one of the founder secretaries of the all-party group on population, reproductive health and development--which has received immense support from Madam Speaker, who is no longer in the Chair--I shall take a particular interest in that subject.
A fundamental expenditure review of the Overseas Development Administration, as it then was, was carried out as recently as 1994. The Labour Government's policy of setting up reviews to review reviews seems to have struck again and we should like to know which of the four aims that were set out in 1994 is to be questioned by the Secretary of State. Does she question the promotion of sound political and economic policies, stronger health and education services, sustainable development or co-operation with our international partners? We wait to learn which of those objectives the Government question.
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