Current Developments in
European Trade Policy
CHAPTER 1: Introduction
1. The Committee asked the Parliamentary Under-Secretary
of State for Trade and Consumer Affairs, Gareth Thomas MP, to
give evidence on the most recent developments in Trade Policy.
We thank the Minister for his time.
2. In this Report we make available, for the
information of the House, the oral evidence given to Sub-Committee
A (Economic and Financial Affairs, and International Trade) by
the Minister, accompanied by Ms Rosalind McCarthy-Ward, Director,
Trade Operations and Mr Fergus Harradence, Head of Unit, Multilateral
Trade Negotiations, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory
Reform, on 16 October 2007.
3. Key topics in the evidence are:
- Parliamentary scrutiny of trade
negotiating mandates in the House of Lords (Q 16)
- The WTO Doha Round (QQ 2-7, 27-29, 32)
- Food miles (Q 4)
- The impacts of trade agreements on developing
countries (QQ 7, 13-4, 27, 30-31)
- The Common Agricultural Policy (QQ 8-10)
- Trade in services (Q 11)
- Bilateral Trade Agreements (QQ 12-13, 15, 17-19)
- UK influence on European Trade policy (Q 19)
- Trade Defence Instruments (QQ 20-21, 24)
- Trade relations with China (QQ 22-23, 25-26)
The future of multilateral trade
negotiations
4. We last reported on trade issues in December
2005[1] and at that time
concluded that governments should strongly pursue multilateral
trade agreements. We are concerned that there appears to have
been scant progress towards a conclusion of the Doha Round since
our last report, and we are worried that the protracted negotiations
on this Round may diminish the appetite for future multilateral
agreements.
5. We have also noted the increasing number of
bilateral agreements that are being negotiated by both the European
Community and the United States of America. We have previously
concluded that bilateral agreements could add value but should
not replace the multilateral approach. We are concerned, however,
that this may be what is happening.
6. We have therefore decided to commence an inquiry
which will look beyond the Doha Round to the future of multilateral
trade agreements, and examine the priorities for European trade
policy over the next decade. The Call for Evidence for this new
inquiry is published alongside this Report, and is also printed
in Appendix 2.
7. We make this report for information.
1 The World Trade Organization: The Hong Kong Ministerial
13th-18th December 17th Report of Session 2005-06, HL Paper
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