Association Agreements

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 10:36 pm on 17 February 1992.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Mr Philip Oppenheim Mr Philip Oppenheim , Amber Valley 10:36, 17 February 1992

If time is that short, perhaps the hon. Gentleman should have spent less of it talking about his nice stroll through Berlin.

He rightly said that it was crucial for eastern Europe that we open our markets to it, but surely if he reads the documents he will find that we are not opening up our markets to eastern Europe—we are keeping them closed for a further five to 10 years. At the very time when those countries are desperately struggling to convert their economies to market economies, we are not practising what we preach, because we are keeping our markets closed to their goods.