International Trade
On Thursday in Parliament, I raised two important matters with the new Secretary of State for International Trade, Kemi Badenoch MP. I started by urging the Minister to back an extension to the Covid-19 intellectual property waiver. Many constituents wrote to me about this issue this week and I was keen to press the Government on it. The WTO deal to waiver some Covid-19 vaccine intellectual property rights earlier this year was a huge moment in our fight against Covid-19.
The pandemic showed that none of us our safe until all of us are safe. But unfortunately, it was wealthy countries who used their power to prioritise their vaccination rather than co-ordinating a safer international approach. Still, the intellectual property waiver on vaccines made it easier and quicker for developing countries to gain access to life-saving jabs.
Now there is an urgent demand for a similar deal to be struck on treatments, which save lives and significantly decrease mortality rates. Although the Secretary of state refused to back such an extension, she did suggest I could write to her with further details, which I will do.
I also asked the Secretary of State for International Trade about recent comments by our Home Secretary regarding a possible trade deal with India. The Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, recently made ill-informed comments about Indian migrants overstaying their visas and as a result, the Indian Government has backed off a possible trade deal.
Post-Brexit the Government is scrambling to replace the trade we have lost with the EU by striking trade deals around the world. Deals which often undermine animal welfare protections and food standards. Nonetheless, the damage the Home Secretary has caused by her comments is clear and I asked the Secretary of State if she could reassure the public that the Home Secretary’s extremism will not do further damage to our economy. The Secretary of State responded by denying that the Home Secretary’s comments had had any impact on the deal.
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