Speeches by Bryant.

“I am challenging the way you are using statistics there, because the UK has always been an open trading country. There are lots of tariff lines in the UK that are going down from 3% to nil, whereas tariff rates in India are coming down, as I just said, in relation to whisky from 150% to 75% and then to 40%. You are try…”

“Yes, and we are working with businesses at the moment. We have already had an interaction with about 1,000 businesses specifically on the issue of how to take advantage of the FTA. You are quite right that there is no point in signing an FTA unless you manage to get people to take advantage of it. I might just pick you…”

“No, it does not. I agree with what you have just said.”

“It is not very alive at the moment. It is certainly one of the things that we need to consider, because investment between our two countries is a key part of enabling some of the other aspects of any deal.”

“Yes, completely. One tiny other thing that you and I have on occasion bemoaned in the House is the fact that whereas 20 years ago there was a general expectation that free trade around the world would grow, in recent years that space has tended to be more limited, rather than grow. Still 72% of trade in the world is do…”

“We do have an extensive committee structure. The truth is, as I said right at the beginning, an FTA is only the start of a process. It often feels like the end of a process because Kate and her team have slogged their guts out and gone on endless meetings and so on, but the truth is it is all about the implementation a…”

“In many regards, it is as important in services as it is in goods, but sometimes it is more difficult to evaluate. For instance, we have gained market access on telecommunications—UK firms can now invest up to 49% of foreign direct investment, and subject to Government approval up to 100%—and that is a significant win …”

“I do not know whether Kate was more intimately involved in the process of deciding.”

“As with any deal, when it comes to agricultural issues, of course there are issues that are of particular concern for some countries and not for others. There are issues that we deliberately did not put on the table and there are others that India did not. We have already had clearance from an independent body that the…”

“I understand the point you are making, but I am making a different one. I thought we were referring to the NFU trying to claim that there were two sets of standards that were going to be introduced into UK dairy.”

“A competitive threat is different from a standards threat. The point is being made that the independent body—”

“It is a simple fact that this is one of the areas where we will have to continue working to be able to make sure that non-tariff barriers are addressed just as effectively as others. We do have some commitments already in the FTA, for instance around no derogation of existing laws in relation to the environment and thi…”

“I do not want to be panglossian and presume that everything is going to change very suddenly. As I said, we have done a deal with the federal Government of India, and different states have different rules, as does Canada, for that matter. Different provinces in Canada have different rules for their internal markets.”

“Technical standards are one of the areas where we will have one of the sub-committees. You are right that this is often true. For that matter, sometimes a country quite understandably wants to protect, for instance, its agricultural standards, its farming standards, just as we do in the UK. Just because there is libera…”

“It will be on a motion.”

“Yes. As the Minister who took forward CRAG in 2009-10, it would be bizarre if the Government did not want to have a debate on the FTA, not least because we think that it is a very dramatic and significant achievement. It will lead to the protection of jobs in the UK. It will make people in the UK better off and it will…”

“No, I do not think that we have. You are right that sometimes you want to use trade policy as a means of securing other ends. However, the deal that we have struck here—although I was not party to the process of striking the deal; it happened when others were in the Department before me—on a whole series of areas manag…”

“It does not, and it is not aimed to do so. You and I have signed some of the same letters on his behalf and have met with his brother. You and I both met with his brother on the same day on one occasion. I am passionate in wanting to see his release. We regularly make the point to the Indian Government. I know that sen…”

“Didn’t you want to ask me about ISDS?”

“That is inviting me to comment on our relationship with the European Union.”