Oral Answers to Questions — Business, Innovation and Skills – in the House of Commons at 9:30 am on 8 January 2015.
William Bain
Labour, Glasgow North East
9:30,
8 January 2015
What estimate he has made of the contribution net trade will make to GDP over the next four years.
Matthew Hancock
Minister of State (Department for Business, Innovation and Skills), Minister of State for Portsmouth, The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change
Our goal is for exports to reach £1trillion by 2020.
William Bain
Labour, Glasgow North East
I am grateful for the Minister’s answer, but last month the Office for National Statistics said that exports had remained largely flat for the past four years, and the Office for Budget Responsibility and the British Chambers of Commerce both downgraded their forecasts for net trade this year, so can he confirm that with this failure on economic rebalancing, his targets for Britain to double our exports to £1 trillion by 2020 and to get 100,000 more firms exporting from Britain will be missed?
Matthew Hancock
Minister of State (Department for Business, Innovation and Skills), Minister of State for Portsmouth, The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change
It is a pity to hear the Opposition setting their face against the desire to double exports to £1 trillion. Of course, the eurozone on our border is in deflation and has had a series of recessions over the past four and a half years. Over the past three months our trade deficit has narrowed, so things are improving. This is undoubtedly hard work, but it is hard work that we will pursue.
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