Greg Mulholland – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2015-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps his Department is taking to ensure policy coherence between trade policy and international poverty reduction with reference to the Sustainable Development Goals.

Matthew Hancock

Trade openness is a key driver of economic growth, which is essential for poverty reduction. Trade will therefore play a central role in the Means of Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. We are working with colleagues across Whitehall to develop an ambitious proposal for trade commitments in the Post-2015 agenda. These commitments range from securing increased market access for low income countries to ensuring that they can make the most of this access through tackling ‘behind the border’ obstacles to trade.