Dominic Hannigan (Labour)

I, too, welcome the Minister of State to the House and thank him for giving his time to discuss this issue. Economic partnership agreements are the trade agreements put in place between the European Union and the 76 developing countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific which are jointly known as the ACP countries. One in eight of the world's population lives in these countries, yet they have only 2% of the world's income. The aims of the economic partnership agreements are to promote poverty reduction, sustainable development and the gradual integration of ACP countries into the world economy.

It is vital that we put the mechanisms in place and ensure they work properly if we are to achieve equality across people, nations and continents. It is not clear, however, that the current regime will allow these goals to be achieved. The EU intends signing a number of new agreements at the earliest opportunity and it wants the initial draft agreements already signed by 35 countries to be formalised by the end of July. However, many people take the view that changes are needed to these draft documents before they are ready to be signed off. Will the Minister of State support changes to the documents to make them more effective and to ensure the purposes of the trade agreements are achieved?

The changes are needed for various reasons. Concerns have been expressed about the matter as it currently stands. For example, the draft agreements do not pass standard development tests. It is questionable whether they integrate economies regionally. The heads of a number of African states are concerned about this and want a review of the draft documents in front of the African Union before they are signed off in full. It is also uncertain that the agreements will help to develop new industries in ACP countries. Concerns have been expressed that not enough is being done to promote economic diversification.

The question also arises as to whether the agreements will provide full access to European markets. As the EU's exacting standards go further than international requirements, African imports of cereals and dried fruit containing aflatoxins, which cause liver cancer, have reduced by 50%. Statistics demonstrate, however, that only one life has been saved by this. It must be asked, therefore, whether these exacting standards are causing more deaths from poverty and hunger than they are saving lives on this continent.

The consensus is that the agreements will not deliver sufficient infrastructure in ACP countries. I had dinner with the Niger Minister for Finance in advance of December's summit in Lisbon between EU and African leaders. He expressed concern about the amount of funding being invested in infrastructure in his country. One way of promoting equality and reducing poverty is to ensure countries have adequate infrastructure but more work needs to be done in that regard.

These are some of the concerns being expressed in regard to the draft economic partnership agreements. We all want to see them benefit the developing world. Public opinion across Europe wants to make it easier for the Third World to develop, so we have to ensure the agreements do not adversely affect ACP countries. Will the Minister of State agree to push for an independent impact assessment of the draft agreements and for the EU to adopt unilateral preference schemes so that a country does not suffer if it does not sign up to an agreement? Will he restate firmly the Government's commitment to ensuring we meet our target of 0.7% of gross domestic product in aid to the developing world?