Downing Street Says » Trade Barriers

» Friday, November 25, 2005

Trade Barriers

Asked about Don McKinnon’s comments on the G8 and trade barriers, the PMOS said that he was not aware of Don McKinnon’s remarks. Anyone who had studied the outcome of Gleneagles would see nearly a £50 billion increase in aid. We had seen serious action being taken in helping improve the effectiveness with which aid was spent. We were seeing real pressure building up, and we were doing everything we could to increase that pressure towards a deal on trade. Even yesterday we saw for instance the EU agree a reform of the EU sugar sector which would not only save, when in came into operation, the EU$7 billion a year but it would also benefit 120 out of the 140 developing countries who were damaged by sugar subsidies.

Therefore there was a long list of things that we could point to showing progress. Did that mean that we were at the end of the road, absolutely not. What this G8 had seen was African Aid, as well as climate change, put on the agenda in a way that they had never been before. They would not come off the agenda. They were there for the foreseeable future. We did not claim sole ownership or responsibility for that, but we believed our G8 presidency had gone a long way to doing that.

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