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Clare Short: I am astonished at the hon. Gentleman. There are many things that are true about which he might attack me, but not those that he mentioned, although I accept that we should get developments in Cuba. I have never been a Trotskyist.
Mr. Faber: I will send the right hon. Lady a copy of the early-day motion. She is in good company because, on the great moral issue of the past 40 years--standing up to communism in eastern Europe, the cause of so much desperate deprivation in our continent--Labour Members have been wrong all too often. I hope that the Minister will be able to explain exactly how the Government's new approach will affect our relations with other countries.
Will countries with poor human rights records be blacklisted? How would such a list be decided? Which countries does the Minister have in mind? Will British companies and aid organisations be banned from those countries? How precisely do the Government intend to define the human rights violations that would lead to trade sanctions, and perhaps more important, to withdrawal of aid?
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development (Mr. George Foulkes):
This has been an excellent and well-informed debate. It is unique because it is the first full-day debate on international development in Government time in living memory. I sincerely congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Broxtowe (Dr. Palmer) on his witty, thoughtful speech and on his generous tribute to Sir James Lester, with which I concur. I congratulate my hon. Friend
The debate has illustrated well the real concern of the House about international development, which it has often not been able to express. As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State said, the debate has provided hon. Members with a unique opportunity to contribute to the White Paper at this early stage. Normally, as I can tell my new hon. Friends, debates such as this follow the publication of a White Paper, as the hon. Member for Banbury (Mr. Baldry) rightly said. We felt it not only right but essential, when we were asking academics, non-governmental organisations, ambassadors and high commissioners to contribute their thoughts, to give hon. Members the opportunity to contribute.
Some Tory Members, especially those who spoke from the Front Bench, seemed to think that there was something wrong with having a review. I must say it was nice to get the support of the hon. Members for Hertford and Stortford (Mr. Wells) and for Faversham and Mid-Kent (Mr. Rowe), who perhaps know a little more about the subject. The fact that they supported the review shows that the Opposition are already divided--something that we shall of course do our best to encourage. Surely a White Paper is essential for a new Government coming into office after 18 years, to chart the direction in which we are moving. I thank all hon. Members who have taken part in the debate. If those who have not been able to participate, for whatever reason, submit their views in writing, all of them will be taken into account when we draft the White Paper, which we expect to publish in the autumn.
Meanwhile, I shall respond to some of the more immediate and urgent points raised in the debate and draw some of the threads together. Several hon. Members raised the debt problem. That is understandable. The hon. Member for Richmond Park (Dr. Tonge) rightly said that debt reduced the opportunities for developing countries. It cripples many developing countries, especially in Africa. My hon. Friend the Member for Tottenham (Mr. Grant), in a constructive and eloquent speech, called for Her Majesty's Government to take a lead.
We accept that the debt burden borne by developing countries is a matter of concern not just in the House but among the public. That is why my right hon. Friends the Prime Minister, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Secretary of State for International Development have been pressing the international community to provide further debt relief. We welcome the support that the G7 leaders gave to the initiative at the Denver summit. We have also called on the International Monetary Fund, the World bank and the Paris Club to play their part. We shall take every opportunity to argue our case at the meetings of those organisations.
I can tell the hon. Member for Westbury (Mr. Faber) that we do not believe that we should grant debt relief without a commitment by debtors to create the right environment for sustainable economic growth. If relief is not to be wasted, our aim must be to ensure that it encourages economic development and leads to lasting
poverty reduction. As several hon. Members have said, poverty can be the cause of conflict rather than the effect of it.
Mr. Faber:
Just to put the record straight, I did not suggest that Front-Bench Members had said that all debt relief should automatically be cancelled. I merely said that one or two hon. Members mentioned it in the course of their speech.
Mr. Foulkes:
I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman.
Several hon. Members mentioned the role of the World bank. We welcome the way in which its image has improved, especially in the past year. The Government welcome the bank's intention to do more to develop poverty-targeted lending. We are encouraging it to improve its poverty assessment as a key instrument in identifying poverty. Like the hon. Member for Hertford and Stortford, we welcome Mr. James Wolfensohn's personal commitment not only to reduce poverty but to combat corruption, which reduces economic growth and deters investment. We await with interest the bank's action plan of measures to ensure that its own operations are free of corruption.
The hon. Member for Banbury and others raised the subject of aid and trade provision. There are different views about the achievements of ATP over the years, but I am clear that the aid programme should not be about the promotion of commercial objectives. Under the departmental spending review we shall therefore be looking closely at the subject of ATP, at our policies on tying and on how we can establish a better partnership with the private sector.
My hon. Friend the Member for Tottenham raised the issue of the tying of aid programmes. Conservative Members picked on something that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State said in New York which was not properly reported. We believe that tied aid programmes can impose additional costs on recipients and donors by restricting competition and choice. I am sure that untying is in all our long-term interests. I support the efforts of the OECD in this area; we feel that the time is right to make progress towards multilateral untying. My right hon. Friend actually announced that the United Kingdom is untying the remaining 25 per cent. of our contribution to the special programme of assistance for Africa that is currently tied--some 75 per cent. of our contribution was already untied. We are currently looking more generally at untying aid as part of our overall review.
A number of hon. Members mentioned the excellent work being done by HMS Liverpool, the West Indies guard ship in Montserrat. As well as helping with the search-and-rescue operation, the crew have been assisting in the repair of generators, constructing building shells at Brads and solving plumbing problems at some of the shelters. The crew have been providing good assistance at the current emergency on Montserrat. I can assure the right hon. Member for Eddisbury (Mr. Goodlad) and the hon. Members for Westbury and for Mid-Sussex (Mr. Soames)--the latter apologised for not being able to be here for my reply--that our Department will be making a contribution to the Ministry of Defence defence review. We shall include the value of our troops and ships, both in peace-keeping as well as in disaster relief.
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