Howard lobbies Blair for Advocacy Fund
Conservative Party leader Michael Howard is lobbying the Prime Minister to set up an international fund to help developing countries during trade discussions.
Mr Howard wrote to Tony Blair to suggest that he puts forward proposals for an Advocacy Fund at the forthcoming G8 summit.
And he raised the issue again at Prime Minister’s question time this afternoon.
Mr Howard argues that such a fund would enable developing countries to provide themselves with high quality advice and advocacy on trade issues, and to strengthen the support given to developing countries in settling trade disputes.
It would differ from the funding and assistance already provided by the Government because it would give developing countries “the resources to arrange for themselves the advice they needed, according to their own wishes and requirements”, he said.
“It would help to address the concerns which exist in some quarters about the way in which the WTO operates, and the imbalance in resources available to developing and developed countries during trade discussions,” the Tory leader wrote.
But replying to Mr Howard’s question in the House of Commons this afternoon, the Prime Minister said the Government had already provided £200 million to developing countries for developing capacity in respect of trade.
According to advice he had received, developing countries would prefer to receive aid in the way that it was given at the moment, Mr Blair added. Developing countries were worried that a fund like that being proposed by Mr Howard would “put bureaucratic hurdles” in their way.
Mr Howard also tackled the Prime Minister over Zimbabwe, asking him to leave South African president Thabo Mbeki in no doubt, at next week’s G8 meeting, about what the world expected of him in relation to his African neighbour.
Mr Blair replied that he would continue to exert all the pressure that he could, but agreed that the best pressure came from those around Zimbabwe. There was no doubt that it was harder to make the case for Africa while abuses of governance were going on, he added, but this should not prevent action from being taken.
Turning to Europe, Mr Howard accused the Prime Minister of saying different things to different people about the Government’s position on the EU.
Mr Howard maintained that while the Prime Minister told the UK Parliament on June 8 that Britain would not give up the EU rebate, he had told the European Parliament on June 10 that Britain would put the rebate on the table in return for a discussion about reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
Mr Blair replied that the “rebate remains because the reason for the rebate remains”, and if that reason – namely that CAP distorts EU expenditure – changed then the rebate was open to change.
Mr Howard also reminded Mr Blair that when he was selected in 1983 as the candidate for Sedgefield he had told his selection committee that he was against Britain’s withdrawal from the EEC, as it was then called, but told his electors that his party would negotiate a withdrawal from the EEC because it drained natural resources and destroyed jobs.
“Old habits die hard,” Mr Howard said, adding that Mr Blair could not carry on saying one thing to one audience and another thing to the other.
The Prime Minister clarified that Britain was prepared to put the rebate on the table provided CAP was reformed. He added that since he and Mr Howard were trading inconsistencies on Europe, the Tory leader was the man who voted for the Maastricht Treaty but voted against a referendum on the Maastricht Treaty.
