Following the Prime Minister’s statement on the G20 Summit, James Cleverly calls on the PM to reject calls to move away from liberal free market economics and continue to promote free trade as a means of lifting developing nations and their peoples out of poverty.
James Cleverly (Braintree) (Con)
Among the members of the G20 are some countries that were in crushing poverty only a few decades ago. Will the Prime Minister reject the calls to move away from liberal free market economics and instead promote that as an agenda, removing tariff barriers imposed by wealthy countries and using free trade to lift other poor nations and people around the world out of that poverty?
The Prime Minister
My hon. Friend is absolutely right; it is trade that develops economies, helps to lift poor countries out of their poverty and helps to provide for people in those countries. One of the points I made at the summit was that the increasing protectionism we see—the increasing pressure on the rules-based international order in relation to trade—will only hit the poorest hardest.