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European Union (Definition of Treaties) (Republic of Korea Free Trade Agreement) Order 2012

My Lords, if I may, I will make a few comments and I declare an interest as an importer of Far Eastern cars for the past 35 years, some of which were Korean—in fact, we imported Hyundai. We indeed were a beneficiary of ““free trade”” in those days. It was not free trade, but we had import duty free status for a period of years while industry in the Far East was growing. My perception is that this agreement may be more beneficial to Korea than to us. I am concerned as to whether we should be encouraging people to set up assembly facilities here. For instance, Toyota and Honda have set up facilities here. Does it prejudice their situation when Korean cars will come in duty-free? What impact does that have? I am concerned about that aspect of it and if the Minister can make some comments about that, it would be useful. The second issue I have some concern about is that having been involved in a legal dispute in Korea, their legal system has—if I may put it this way—a few question marks over it. If British firms dealing in Korea were to be encouraged to use an international court, that might be very helpful. Those are my comments.