Orders of the Day — Export and Investment Guarantees Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 9:32 pm on 22 January 1991.

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Photo of Edward Leigh Edward Leigh Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Trade and Industry) 9:32, 22 January 1991

Textile exports will be covered by Insurance Services, but I have noted my hon. Friend's question.

I reassure my hon. Friend the Member for Leeds, North-West that there is no question of short-termism, that premium rate subsidies will be eliminated only on the basis of multilateral international agreement. My hon. Friend the Member for Hereford said that we must not go down the road of unilateralism. We have no intention of so doing.

I should like to deal now with individual markets. Decisions on the volume of ECGD cover on individual markets are both more difficult and more important. Clearly, given recent experience, it would be quite irresponsible of the Government not to adopt a prudent and disciplined approach to arriving at these judgments. However, this does not mean that, on the more difficult markets, cover will be withdrawn. I can give that assurance to my hon. Friend the Member for Leeds, North-West, who also raised the point. What it does mean is that we shall need to look more carefully at the balance between national interest and risk.

The starting point will obviously be a wish on the part of the Government to help our exporters to win worthwhile export contracts. The constraint will be the assessment of the financial risk in doing so. There will be extremely difficult judgments to make, but we are confident that the result will be ECGD's continuing to give our exporters the support they need to compete successfully for overseas projects that represent a not unreasonable credit risk.

The suggestion that the Government are not committed to support for project exports is simply not borne out by the facts. The suggestion that more could be done and that PMS should be abandoned is beguiling and may win friends in some quarters, but it is an irresponsible denial of the hard lessons of the recent past and the debt burden that we face. I believe that the difficult decisions we have taken represent the only way forward and a good deal for our exporters.