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European Union (Amendment) Bill

I do not think that the hon. Gentleman can have been paying attention. I was not talking about a British Government legislating domestically in a protectionist direction; I was talking about moving in a pro-competitive direction and setting the bar higher, so as to set a powerful example for other European countries to follow. I want to touch briefly on trade matters, and to remind Members that we do not have a trade policy any more, because such policy is now effectively governed by the European Union. We rely on influencing the single Trade Commissioner, Peter Mandelson, to make good agreements on our behalf. Using that model, however, the evidence is that some of the recent agreements have not been particularly successful. We all remember the agreements of a few years ago on textiles and shoes. They were protectionist in nature, so as to protect some of the southern European countries, and they damaged poorer countries in the third world. We should be giving those countries a leg up by trading with them, yet our agreements actually put poorer workers there out of work. Those were very protectionist measures, and I do not want to see that kind of thing in the competitive field. I want the British Government to be pro-competitive, and I would like to see a bit more of that ability on the trade side. I want us to set a good example. That is why I support the amendments tabled by my hon. Friends, and why I do not support the Government's approach.