Free Trade and Foreign Policy

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 3:31 pm on 11 November 1996.

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Photo of Malcolm Rifkind Malcolm Rifkind Foreign Secretary 3:31, 11 November 1996

The right hon. Gentleman is wrong. He implies that the European Union makes trade policy through the workings of the Commission; it does not. When, for example, we were determining a mandate for the negotiations between the European Union and the United States, Sir Leon Brittan had to approach the member Governments and ask them to agree a mandate. There was a great debate between the free traders and the protectionists. I am happy to say that the United Kingdom not only led the free trade case, but won. The mandate that Sir Leon is now negotiating, and which he is happy to negotiate, therefore owes its genesis to Britain and the other member states which successfully argued the free trade case and thereby determined EU policy.