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Mr. James Paice (South-East Cambridgeshire): The right hon. Gentleman mentioned that last week.
Mr. Brown: Well, that does not make it wrong this week. The position remains the same, and I know that most Members of the House will not be surprised by that.
The position on beef on the bone has not changed. I want to lift the ban as soon as I can, but that will be in response to the professional advice of the Government's medical advisers.
The hon. Member for South Suffolk (Mr. Yeo) referred to the start date of 1 August and said that beef will start to be exported again well into August, but 1 August is the start of August. How can that possibly be grudgingly described as "well into August"?
The hon. Gentleman asked whether people are ready to go ahead with exports. I said in my statement that they are, at St. Merryn's in Cornwall. They believe that they
already have markets lined up and are ready to start exporting immediately after 1 August. [Hon. Members: "Which markets?"] Hon. Members may shout, "Which markets?", but that is a commercial matter for the exporters. The Government's role is to make sure that trade can be facilitated. The Opposition ask what we are doing to help to win back the markets. Surely the first thing to do is to make it legal to export beef to those markets, which is exactly what I have done.
The hon. Member for South Suffolk went on to say that I should provide illegal state aids to assist British beef to get back into the export markets. What view does he think the Commission would take of that? What message would that send to our European partners, who, without any selfish interest in this matter, have stood by us when we have been able to work constructively with them to prove our case? Surely our case has been proved by the strength of our arguments.
The hon. Gentleman asked about third countries. The ban on British exports was worldwide and it will be lifted from 1 August, so, subject to the rules of the domestic Governments, which we shall address on a case-by-case basis, it will be possible to sell directly to the European Union and third countries.
The hon. Gentleman referred to the timing and asked why the ban was not lifted in the spring rather than in the summer. When I met members of the National Farmers Union at their conference in the spring, I told them candidly that the date for lifting the ban might be later than they hoped, but I would rather get it right than do it early, and the farmers cheered because they knew that that was in the national interest.
Mr. Dale Campbell-Savours (Workington):
May I warmly congratulate my hon. Friend and his predecessor, my right hon. Friend the Member for Copeland (Dr. Cunningham), on the excellent way in which they have handled the issue since the general election? The key decision in lifting the ban was that taken by Labour Ministers after the general election to establish the cattle traceability centre in my constituency. That reassured people throughout the European Union. May I express the hope that when the BSE inquiry is finally published it exposes why the Tory Government refused to take that critical decision, because, had it been taken earlier, it would have led to the beef ban being lifted earlier?
Mr. Brown:
My hon. Friend is on to a very good point. Cattle traceability is crucial to the date-based export scheme and I pay tribute to his hard-working constituents in the British cattle movement service. I also pay tribute to my predecessor, my right hon. Friend the Member for Copeland (Dr. Cunningham), for having done so much to smooth our way in the European Union and to get the important negotiations off to a good start.
Mr. Charles Kennedy (Ross, Skye and Inverness, West):
I warmly welcome today's news. Does the Minister agree that this afternoon it is probably worth us all maintaining a sense of perspective and patriotism about this development? It is rather disappointing that, perhaps for understandable reasons, the Conservative spokesman seems unable to exhibit either. Is not the true perspective that an industry that was worth in excess of half a billion pounds to this country in 1995 was effectively closed down? In addition to the terrible deaths
Does the Minister agree that a lesson from the recent past is that when the ban was lifted in Northern Ireland, welcome though that was, it was a very long haul indeed to re-establishing credibility in the European markets and achieving market penetration? Will the Minister work with the Meat and Livestock Commission and the British agricultural sector on a wholesale marketing campaign across the continent, bringing correspondents, food writers and agriculturists from there to here as well as publicising our domestic market over there to ensure that we get back on track sooner rather than later? Finally, does he agree that it would help the re-establishment of credibility to lift the ban on beef on the bone? In the longer term, let us hope that such a dreadful tragedy for all concerned can be prevented from ever recurring, not least by the establishment in due course of a properly funded and independent Food Standards Agency.
Mr. Brown:
I agree with much of what the hon. Gentleman said, in particular his welcome for the Food Standards Agency, which is an important step forward. He will be pleased to learn that I am meeting Don Curry of the MLC at 5 o'clock today to discuss what the Government can do to help.
The hon. Gentleman is right to say that BSE has been a national tragedy for our country. So far, 43 lives have been lost to new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and some £4 billion of public money has been spent, mostly on public protection measures, some of which have acted as pretty powerful market interventions. The figure that he quotes for the industry losses in 1995 are right, although, as part of the tragedy, the shutters came down on exports when they were running at an all-time high, so the industry has been hit hard.
My objective has been to make sure that the public can have absolute certainty in the beef on the United Kingdom market as that is the only market available to the domestic industry and to make sure that we could get back into exports in an orderly way and command the confidence of overseas consumers. That is exactly what we have done.
Mr. Martyn Jones (Clwyd, South):
May I assure my right hon. Friend that farmers in my constituency will be wholeheartedly delighted with today's news? It is probably the best thing that has happened in my area for some time. I am sure that they will contrast the hypocrisy from the Conservatives with my right hon. Friend's statement.
May I add my comments to those of the hon. Member for Ross, Skye and Inverness, West (Mr. Kennedy)? My farmers think that the MLC has not done as much as it could have done to promote British beef. Will my right hon. Friend stress that once again to Don Curry of the MLC, whom I am glad to hear that he is meeting later today?
Mr. Brown:
I take my hon. Friend's point and thank him for his welcome for the announcement. The opportunities to support British beef overseas have been
On the domestic beef market, such is the effort that has been made by the MLC and the Government in emphasising the tough-minded nature of public protection measures that beef consumption is now higher in the UK than it was at pre-BSE crisis levels.
Mr. Douglas Hogg (Sleaford and North Hykeham):
The decision of the European Union to lift the beef ban is obviously good news. I am the first to acknowledge the hard work that the right hon. Gentleman, his Front-Bench colleagues and officials have done. I think that they deserve the congratulations of the House.
That said, would I be right in saying that most of the steps that the right hon. Gentleman has taken to get the ban lifted were based on the policies and plans that the previous Conservative Government put in place before the last general election, which laid the foundation for the lifting of the ban? Has not the lifting of the ban exposed the illogicality of adhering to the domestic-based 30 month rule as from now? Is it not right to say that, from August 1996, we can be certain about the quality and integrity of the cattle feed being fed to animals? Having regard to that fact, and also to the fact that a cull was carried out to eliminate the risk of maternal transmission, we could now properly lift the 30 month rule in respect of cattle born after August 1996.
Mr. Brown:
I accept that the right hon. and learned Gentleman is on to a strong point on the OTMS. I am awaiting scientific advice on precisely the point that he has raised. I thank him for what he said about the work of officials. Officials in my Department have made heroic efforts with their counterparts in the European Union to explain what we are doing and how we are meeting the technical requirements of the scheme. In that, we have been assisted by officials in the Foreign Office and in other Government Departments as well as by other Agriculture Departments.
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