Baroness Hooper: ...for trade and investment are huge. It is fair to say that we already have a presence in Latin America. Our traditional industries are as much household names in, let us say, Chile, Brazil and Venezuela, to name a representative three, as they are here. Therefore, ICI, Unilever, Glaxo, BP and the big banks are all there and their brands are well known. Our privatised utilities have also...
Jimmy Hood: ...vote. In the Commonwealth, Australia has compulsory voting, enforced by an A$200 fine for non-voters. Similar laws operate in Latin America—in Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Venezuela. In the European Union, Belgium, Luxembourg and Greece have compulsory voting. Belgium imposes a fine of up to BF5,000, and there is a similar fine in Luxembourg. Legislation in Greece...
Mr George Foulkes: We have responded to a large number of floods during the past year, including in Venezuela and Mozambique, and more recently in India, Vietnam and Cambodia. We are continuing our work to strengthen OCHA, the United Nations co-ordinating agency for emergencies, to ensure that international help is well deployed. We are also helping developing countries that are particularly prone to natural...
Jim Wells: ...more and more evident. This time last year we might have thought that there could be terrible storms, droughts and other climatic upheavals, but that they would not affect us. They might affect Venezuela, Bangladesh, the Maldives or the Seychelles, but the United Kingdom would be safe. However, even as I speak, a large proportion of Great Britain is under water, and if the forecast is to...
Geoff Hoon: ...fuel. Since then, there has been a major, around-the-world deployment of naval forces, which return to Britain later this month. Naval task group 2000 visited over 30 countries, from Vietnam to Venezuela. The Illustrious carrier task group deployed to the Gulf, before diverting to Sierra Leone on its way home. In September, the Invincible carrier task group was involved in a major series...
Baroness Scotland of Asthal: ...Islands 26 May 2000 Uganda 21 June 2000 Ukraine 16 May 2000 United Arab Emirates 25 May 2000 United States 25 May 2000 Uruguay 28 March 2000 Uzbekistan 03 July 2000 Venezuela 08 June 2000 Vietnam 28 June 2000 Western Sahara 19 June 2000 Yemen 14 April 2000 Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia (inc Kosovo) and Montenegro 19 May 2000 ...
Lord Brett: ...of the International Labour Organisation, where I lead a group of 24 worker members from around the world. Among that group are four members of the upper chambers of their parliaments, one from Venezuela, one from Chile, one from the Czech Republic and one from Barbados. They all congratulated me on my becoming a Member of your Lordships' House. We swapped anecdotes about the workload, the...
Clare Short: ...cyclone in India in November 1999; after more floods in Vietnam; after another earthquake in Turkey; after a hurricane in Anguilla; after an earthquake in Vanuatu in December 1999; after floods in Venezuela; after storms in France, because it needed people to get the electricity system working; after storms in Mongolia in March; and after cyclones in Madagascar, also this month. We are...
Lord Whitty: ...largest donor of the United Nations' Environment Programme (UNEP), which takes a leading role in assessing the environmental impacts of natural disasters. Its recent activities include work in Venezuela and Mozambique. UNEP's most recent assessment of the effect of natural disasters is contained in its Global Environment Outlook 2000 report, which was published in September 1999. While it...
Lord Tanlaw: ...to appreciate that this was a political and social factor and one that probably affects our lives very considerably, especially when one sees the effects on Mozambique, the hurricanes that hit Venezuela and the extraordinary weather patterns. Not all of these phenomena are entirely due to man-made products, as one is inclined to think. The sun has a great deal to do with it, and we need to...
Baroness Hooper: ...role: for example, to Peru and Bolivia in the early and mid-1990s; to Central America in the late 1980s; and currently with the approval of the DTI desks, it plans to visit Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela in February 2001. It has targeted consumer goods manufacturers in the United Kingdom and organised 10 exhibitions in a number of markets in Latin America. It has worked closely with the...
Baroness Williams of Crosby: ...of mountains, desperate, tiny villages clinging on to wholly unsuitable terrain--is beginning to create what are described today as "unnatural disasters" on the sort of scale that we have seen in Venezuela, Honduras, Brazil and elsewhere. They are created, partly, by the sheer pressure of demand and density in unsuitable areas. Therefore, one cannot exclude the environmental factor;...
Mr Tam Dalyell: (by private notice): To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if she will make a statement on assistance to Venezuela.
Stuart Bell: .... Friend the Member for Hackney, North and Stoke Newington—and on hormone-treated beef have gone against us, it should be noted that the WTO has also found against the United States on behalf of Venezuela, Brazil and Costa Rica. The hon. Member for Tiverton and Honiton (Mrs. Browning) listed earlier a number of sectors in our country which have been penalised as a consequence of the...
Baroness Hooper: ...of Latin America, not least in the debate which he introduced in your Lordships' House in June this year. We miss his presence and his expertise, but I know that even now he is in South America--in Venezuela--and that he will continue to take an interest in proceedings in your Lordships' House. On the political level, there have been recent welcome breakthroughs in Latin America; for...
Dennis Skinner: ...and saw on television that the last pit in the north-east had closed, so two very significant industrial matters arose in one week. As Richard Budge is investing money in coal mines in Australia, Venezuela and other countries, can he really be trusted to save the last 13 deep mines, which still produce the cheapest coal in Europe? There is only one solution, which is not to fill the...
Geoff Hoon: ...into force bilaterally between member states. For example, it has recently come into force between the United Kingdom and South Africa, between the UK and Turkmenistan and between the UK and Venezuela. There are a number of ways in which cases brought under the convention can be resolved. Judicial decisions in a court case are only one means. A proportion of Hague convention applications...
Keith Vaz: When may we debate the convention on the transfer of prisoners convicted abroad? The Leader of the House will know that two of my constituents, Paul Loseby and James Miles, have been in custody in Venezuela for the past two years. The Venezuelan Government have signed the convention, which now needs to be ratified by other countries. Could we debate this matter to ensure that British citizens...
Tom Brake: ...credibility depends on it. My hon. Friend the Member for South-East Cornwall touched on that. I and other members of the Environment Sub-Committee are flying this evening to Brazil and Venezuela to discuss international environmental agreements, but we will also talk about local environmental issues. We will not be in a position to complain about how developing countries treat their...
Vincent Cable: ..., which is of value, above all, to small and weak countries. There have already been several examples of the system's value. In cases brought by Costa Rica, which is a very small country, and by Venezuela, the United States has been obliged, for example, to accept rulings based on the principles by which the World Trade Organisation disputes settlement panels operate. We should be...