David Lidington Quotes

I absolutely trust Hillary Clinton to stand strong on trade agreements.

We're working on accession to the WTO very actively. We still have several countries with which we need to conclude agreements and possibly that will happen next year.

The Clinton administration brought 65 cases from 1995 to 2000 before the World Trade Organization. The Bush administration has brought twelve. Twelve cases. They haven't even been able to stand up for our jobs.

President Obama was right to make enforcement of those trade rules a priority and his creation, today, of a Trade Enforcement Unit is a massive step in the right direction.

Trade agreements are what you make of them.

Tariffs are only one tool in enforcing our global trade policy.

I do not doubt that there are many countries that will wish to trade with the U.K. post-Brexit, but understandably they will wait to see what the U.K.'s ultimate relationship with Europe will be.

Take the creation of the Pacific partnership or the creation of the Atlantic partnership. We are somewhat concerned because this is being done bypassing the World Trade Organisation, since it has proved impossible to reach compromise solutions with developing economies within the framework of that organisation. Is that good? Not really, in my opinion.

I should also say that apart from the negotiations that are taking place within the WTO, we are ourselves involved in all manner of bilateral negotiations, or, if they are not bilateral, with the South African Customs Union and the European Union. All the member countries of the European Union have now ratified the agreement that we have with the EU and that opens up the EU market in various ways.

The WTO has one of the most impressive records in global economic governance, by promoting trade liberalisation and economic development.

You mentioned the Free Trade Agreement and yes I can't tell you how pleased we are that Morocco is one of the countries that our country is going to begin negotiating a Free Trade Agreement with.

Canada and the United States are also working at the World Trade Organization and in our own hemisphere with negotiations for a Trade Area of the Americas to try to help countries create a positive climate for investment and trade.

For the future world-trading regime to mirror economic reality and to allow the use of modern business strategies, we need a single overarching multilateral framework for trade. We can have either a flat world or a patchwork of crisscrossing mountain ranges and tunnels.

These agreements should be free trade. They aren’t free trade.

The WTO [World Trade Organization] has been treated for too long like some private priesthood for experts …

The problem with regional trade agreements is you get picked apart by the first country. Then you negotiate with the second country. You get picked apart. And you go with the third one. You get picked apart again.

I opposed the World Trade Organization.

I do think we need to hold countries accountable who violate trade agreements that are already in place. We need to get stronger about enforcement, that in the future if we strike a trade agreement, toughening up labor standards and environmental standards and enforcement standards is something we absolutely need to do.

I am more interested in fair and balanced trade between nations than I am in free trade that encumbers us in a multinational pact that is refereed by the WTO.

I am disappointed that the President made the decision to have Ambassador Froman sign the TPP agreement in New Zealand.

If NAFTA goes away, it's not the end of the world. It certainly is not the end of trade between Mexico and the United States.

You have to understand that under One Country, Two Systems, we are a separate customs authority in the same way we are a separate member of the World Trade Organization.

Most trade agreements arise from a desire to liberalise trade - making it easier to sell goods and services into one another's markets. Brexit will not.

There is no one trade agreement in the world that has country-specific content. It doesn't exist. Content has to be measured regionally.

India's difficulties in negotiating an FTA with both the ASEAN and E.U. are a reminder of the importance of multilateralism.