Following the announcement of our temporary tariff regime, we had further discussions with industry and consumer groups. Having listened carefully to their feedback, we will make 3 specific amendments affecting HGVs, bioethanol and clothing.

These are to:

• lower tariffs on HGVs entering the UK market, striking a better balance between the needs of British producers and the SMEs that make up the UK haulage industry, ensuring that crucial fleet replacement programmes that help to lower carbon emissions can continue

• adjust tariffs on bioethanol to retain support for UK producers, as the supply of this fuel is important to critical national infrastructure

• apply tariffs to additional clothing products to ensure the preferential access to the UK market currently available to developing countries (compared to other countries) is maintained

These 3 specific amendments to the tariff rates published in March will enable UK supply chains to continue to operate smoothly and keep prices down for consumers and ensure that we are fully prepared to leave the EU on 31 October whatever the circumstances.

Under the temporary tariff, 88% of total imports to the UK by value would be eligible for tariff free access.

The government would closely monitor the effects of the temporary tariff regime on the UK economy.

Today we are also announcing an exceptional review process, which will come into force on exit day, to make changes to the temporary tariff regime if necessary.

Businesses and consumers will be able to provide feedback on the impact of the temporary tariff regime to the government through an online feedback form. The government will then review the evidence and consider whether any changes need to be made.

The temporary tariff regime provides a balanced approach on tariffs for both consumers and producers.

British businesses would not pay tariffs on imports into the UK for the majority of goods if we leave the EU without an agreement.

This will mean lower prices in shops for consumers and the opportunity to source the best goods from around the world. For example, honey from New Zealand will see its tariff fall from 17% to zero, grapes from Brazil will reduce from around 15% to zero and other products, such as tennis rackets and wines will no longer face a tariff.

The regime would apply for up to 12 months while a full consultation on a permanent approach to tariffs is undertaken from January, as part of work to develop the UK’s independent trade policy. All businesses, interest groups and consumers will be able to share their views about the permanent tariff regime with the government through this process.

Trade Policy Minister Conor Burns said:

The UK will be leaving the EU on 31 October and we are working with businesses to ensure the UK is ready to trade from day one.

Our temporary tariff regime will support the UK economy as a whole, helping British businesses to trade and opening up opportunities for business to import the best goods from around the world at the best prices for British consumers.

The UK is a free trading nation and British business is in a strong position to compete in an open, free-trading environment.

Satellite technology and data can improve how we tackle global issues such as deforestation, sustainable food production and disaster response, new analysis shows.

Three new reports, published during World Space Week, which runs from 4 to 10 October, show that space-based solutions are:

• 12 times more cost effective at delivering sustainable forestry
• 7 times more cost effective in supporting agriculture
• Twice as cost effective for ensuring disaster resilience

As well as bringing down the cost of tackling these issues and underpinning better responses for the benefit of developing countries, the UK Space Agency’s International Partnership Programme (IPP) has generated £279 million in GVA (Gross Value Added) for the UK economy and supports 3,300 jobs. In total the UK gets more than £2 of benefit back for every £1 invested in these projects.

International Development Secretary Alok Sharma said:

UK aid is central to delivering innovative satellite technology which, in partnership with the UK Space Agency, is helping us achieve the Global Goals and improve the lives of some of the world’s most vulnerable people.

We are already seeing the work that this partnership is helping to achieve from mapping outbreaks of cholera across Yemen to predicating droughts.

Dr Graham Turnock, Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency, said:

The aim of IPP is to make a positive, practical impact on the lives of those living in developing countries.

While the UK space sector is a success story at home, generating billions of pounds for our economy and providing 42,000 jobs, these reports show it is also tackling challenges and having a positive impact on the lives of people all over the world.

IPP, a £30 million a year programme, has now funded 33 projects in 44 countries and built partnerships between 120 space-enabled data organisations and 147 international partners in developing countries. These projects tackle UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG) such as support for precision agriculture, early warning systems for disasters prediction and disease detection.

Over 2,000 people in 186 organisations have been trained to use IPP-funded solutions. Based on current trends, over 4,000 individuals in developing countries are expected to receive training via IPP by 2021.

IPP focuses on using UK space data service strengths in research and innovation to underpin a sustainable economic or societal benefit to developing economies around the world. It is part of and is funded from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s (BEIS) Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF): a £1.5 billion fund announced by the UK Government, which supports cutting-edge research and innovation on global issues affecting developing countries.

World Space Week is a United Nations celebration of space and science, featuring thousands of events all over the world that bring people together to inspire an interest in space.

The UK’s Department for International Trade (DIT) is pleased to announce 12 high-growth Canadian FinTech companies from across 5 major Canadian cities chosen to participate in a trade mission to the UK – 21- 25 October 2019. These leading companies have collectively raised over half a billion in venture capital and are well positioned for global expansion.

The companies will have a first-hand look at the UK’s vibrant FinTech ecosystem, explore the market landscape, and gain valuable insights about expanding their business in the UK. The mission is supported by British Airways (BA), Bank of Montreal (BMO) and Scottish Development International (SDI).

Ranging from cutting-edge personal finance apps and wealth management solutions powered by AI, to venture financing and digital currency, these Canadian companies represent the diversity of FinTech’s poised for international growth out of Canada.

The mission will visit London and Edinburgh, two thriving FinTech hubs, with a week-long programme of high-level ministerial engagements, meetings with financial service leaders, investors and influencers, and more. This is the second DIT-led FinTech Mission to the UK from Canada in recent years. The first led to the creation of over 200 new jobs.

A recent benchmark EY completed for HM Treasury found that the UK ranked higher than California and New York on the strength of its FinTech ecosystem. The largest exporter of financial and related professional services in the world, the UK sector has over 1,600 firms employing over 76,500 people and is home to over 500 banks, including 251 foreign banks. During 2018 there was a three-fold increase in the number of FinTech’s in Scotland and a sharp increase in the number of international FinTech’s locating there. London is one of the world’s premier financial cities and is on track to become home to the same number of FinTech unicorns as San Francisco, the world’s current leader.

Henry Long, DIT – Senior Investment Officer, said:

We are delighted to host this mission to help foster closer links between the UK’s and Canada’s FinTech ecosystems. This is a uniquely curated mission for these innovative Canadian companies to really see the opportunities which the UK FinTech scene can offer as they look to expand globally. DIT has recently supported Sensibill, Q4, Wealthsimple, Lightspeed, Flybits and Kooltra with their investment, growth and expansion in the UK.

David Wismer – BMO Capital Markets, Head of Technology Investment and Corporate Banking, Canada, said:

As part of our purpose at BMO, we are committed to helping drive the innovation economy forward. We see the immense potential that Canadian technology companies have both domestically and on a global scale. By partnering with leading organizations like the UK’s Department for International Trade, we are able to support the rapidly-evolving sector and the companies within it to help them grow and compete in key regions and hubs for innovation like the UK.

Peter Schinasi – Sales Director, Central USA and Canada, said:

We are delighted to be part of this FinTech trade mission from Canada to London and Edinburgh, two world-class cities with long histories of innovation and creativity. For the past 100 years, British Airways has been a champion of technology and a leading source of innovation in the aviation industry, and with up to nine direct flights per week from Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary to London, we are the natural choice to help Canadian FinTech companies explore and connect with talent and investment opportunities in the UK and European markets. “2019 is British Airways’ centenary year, and we are currently investing £6.5bn ($8.2bn) for our customers over the next five years, including our latest aircraft, the Airbus 350 featuring our new Business Class ‘Club Suite’.

The mission companies are:

Toronto

• Clearbanc (venture financing for start-ups)
• Overbond (AI-powered fixed-income insights engine that enables efficient bond issuance and trading)
• Koho (digital banking service for millennials)
• Purefacts (wealth management solutions)
• Highline (start-up co-creation company that launches new ventures with leading corporations and financial institutions)

Ottawa

• Mindbridge (AI-powered solutions for internal auditors)

Montreal

• Mylo (personal finance robo-advisor)
• Impak Finance (digital currency dedicated to the social impact economy)

Calgary

• Katipult (online private placements platform for capital markets)

Vancouver

• Fispan (enterprise banking platform)
• Canalyst (high-growth equity research technology for capital markets)
• Finn AI (AI-powered virtual assistant built for personal banking and finance)

Thank you, Mr Chairman. The United Kingdom associates itself with the statement made by the European Union.

Allow me to begin, if I may, with an explanation of the UK approach in this and future sessions. UK government’s policy is that the United Kingdom will leave the European Union on 31 October. After we’ve left, we will continue to work closely with the EU, as with you all, in pursuit of our shared interests and values, and we will remain active members of this committee. As negotiations in Second Committee will continue past 31 October, I wanted to take this opportunity to set out the UK’s priorities for the session.

Mr Chairman, we’ve collectively all committed to delivering the 2030 Agenda, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and the Paris Climate Agreement. This is because these agreements are the best way for us all to ensure sustainable development for people, planet and prosperity while leaving no one behind. However, as the Five Leaders Summits and the work of this committee have highlighted, we collectively are falling short on delivering that agreed vision. For the United Kingdom, we are committed to accelerating our efforts to deliver on all SDGs at home as well as abroad. Using the data available astutely is critical to our ability to deliver the vision. It will help identify those at risk of being left behind, understand why that is the case and develop the right solutions to combat it. So we encourage this committee to put evidence at the heart of our discussions and focus on areas where progress can be made and where we can have the most impact.

I’d like to touch on five main issues. Firstly, climate change. One of the greatest threats to our vision of sustainable development for all is destruction of our environment. From the IPCC report to the Global Climate Strike, the pressure on governments and the multilateral system to take decisive action is growing. This year’s committee theme is the perfect hook for bringing together economic, environmental and climate themes into more meaningful discussions about how to create a green and an inclusive economy.

Our level of ambition in the next year is critical; at the UNFCCC COP25 in Chile, the CBD CoP15 in China, the Oceans Summit in Portugal and COP26, at all these meetings, we need to seize the chance to accelerate action and embed the linkages between biodiversity protection and enhancement and climate change mitigation and adaptation in our efforts.

The United Kingdom seeks to play an active leading role. We’ve legally committed to net zero emissions by 2050. During a High Level Week, we doubled our international climate finance from over $14 billion from 2021-2025 and we announced over $270 million worth of new measures to stop the destruction of forests and species. We are honoured to have been nominated to host COP26 in partnership with Italy, and we are building a new global alliance to safeguard the world’s oceans and marine life. And we are leading efforts to implement targeted actions on climate adaptation and resilience.

In line with the Secretary-General’s call for more action to tackle climate change, in February, we’ll put forward a new nationally determined contribution representing our highest possible ambition, and we encourage all other member states to do the same.

Thirdly, financing for development. This is also key. We are proud to meet the 0.7% ODA commitment to be the third largest donor to the United Nations, providing some $3 billion last year.

But with that commitment comes scrutiny. Our taxpayers want to see their money make a real difference. But principles of development effectiveness are not just about value for money; they are about ensuring aid gets to those that need it most. When we get it right, we affect the lives of millions of ordinary citizens for the better so we need to squeeze the maximum sustainable impact of each dollar spent. We also need to ensure we increase transparency, fight corruption and tackle inefficient bureaucracy. And these three things are necessary for any economic progress, not just vis a vis development.

Mr Chairman, we all know that aid alone won’t deliver the SDGs; harnessing private sector investment in developing countries’ domestic resources are critical. We agree that a holistic approach is the only way to mobilise to scale of resource needed. But in both actions and negotiations, we are again struggling to deliver. Our macroeconomic negotiations need to evolve to contribute better to scaled up, multi-stakeholder financing for development.

Fourthly, Agenda 2030 is gender sensitive and strongly grounded in international human rights standards. It acknowledges the complementarity between sustainable development, conflict prevention and peacebuilding. It also confirms that development needs to be centred on human rights if it is to be sustainable and inclusive – in other words, if it’s to leave no one behind. The United Kingdom will therefore continue to uphold the promotion, protection and fulfilment of all human rights standards as an integral part of this agenda and this includes gender equality, empowerment of women and girls, and access to sexual and reproductive health and rights. As I said this morning in Third Committee, these are not just a moral obligation; they are a necessity for achieving economic progress and sustainable development.

Finally, I want to say a word about the rules-based international system with the UN at its core. It is absolutely fundamental to the shift to sustainable and inclusive growth. The 2030 Agenda should guide our policies and actions, and this should be supported, Mr Chairman, by a refocussed Second Committee which drives forward implementation. So we hope we can refocus and we hope we can see improved committee working methods which are already benefiting all of us. And we support your call, Mr Chairman, for more action oriented resolutions and for an informal working group to consider proposals for addressing gaps, overlaps and duplications. We hope GA procedures on budgets will be implemented and we hope we can focus our efforts on new or established resolutions that contribute to real delivery.

Thank you.

Well, Mr President, thank you. It is customary for all Security Council members to thank the President of the day for convening a debate on an important topic.

Mr President, preventative diplomacy is a vital tool for this Council in maintaining and restoring international peace and security and it’s a tool we do not use often enough. We cannot simply pay lip service to the primacy of political solutions to conflict. And collectively, this Council should be willing to engage with slow burning political crises before they flare up into open conflict. That’s why in the open debate in the UK’s presidency last August, we held a debate about mediation. So Mr President, thank you for convening this debate on an important issue.

Let me pay tribute to the efforts of the African Union and African sub-regional organisations in this regard. The AU took swift and decisive action in June in response to a brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters in Sudan and the AU’s subsequent mediation was crucial in supporting Sudan’s transition to civilian-led government. I’m pleased that this Council was ultimately able to express its support for the African Union’s position on Sudan in June, thanks in no small measure to the leadership of our African colleagues here on the Council.

Our conflict prevention and resolution efforts work best where the United Nations, the African Union and sub-regional organisations coordinate to leverage their comparative advantages. We’ve seen this in the Central African Republic, where the United Nations and African Union continue to play a vital role in supporting implementation of the peace agreement. And I hope we will see further such coordinated efforts and actions to encourage peaceful dialogue and political processes.

In South Sudan, we urge the regional governments with the African Union, the United Nations and all interested actors to encourage the parties to make further progress in implementing the revitalised peace agreement ahead of the critical 12 November deadline. That should include further direct contact between President Kiir and Riek Machar. And I hope the Security Council is able to play a helpful role during its visit under your leadership, Mr President, and that of our US colleagues later this month.

In Cameroon, the United Kingdom welcomes the national dialogue, which took place last week, as an initial step to bring parties together to work towards peace. Further inclusive discussion about the root causes of grievances is urgently needed, and all parties must take action to address these grievances.

We are often asked to ensure space for African organisations to take the lead on African issues, and we therefore call on the African Union and the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) to support an inclusive and peaceful resolution to the crisis in Cameroon.

And in Burundi, I welcomed our briefers’ raising of the situation there. We encourage Burundian and regional actors to work together in the spirit of the Arusha Accords to make progress on a long-term solution to the political crisis ahead of the 2020 elections. And I hope that this this Council and the Peacebuilding Commission can and will remain fully engaged.

Now, Mr President, there is, of course, no ‘one size fits all’ approach to conflict prevention and resolution. In some contexts, we can best make headway by ensuring alignment by actors behind UN leadership, avoiding duplication of effort. And that is the case in the United Kingdom’s opinion, for example, in Libya, where the international community should follow a single shared roadmap towards the resumption of a political process aligning behind Special Representative Salamé’s leadership. Now, this emphatically does not mean marginalising regional voices. Rather, it means maximising the United Nations ability to leverage the support and expertise of all relevant actors, including the African Union, the League of Arab States and the European Union, behind a successful process.

Mr President, conflict prevention is of course preferable to conflict resolution, but that does require effective horizon scanning capacities. So I commend the work of the United Nations Secretariat and the African Union Commission on strengthening their ability to conduct joint analysis and reporting. I also commend DPPA for the useful horizon scanning discussion we held on Latin America some time ago. I hope to see the next one soon and that they take place more frequently hereafter. It is very good, I think, for members of the Council to have an informal opportunity to understand the situation in a range of countries not on the Council’s agenda.

I also welcome the development of the African Union’s Continental Early Warning System, which the United Kingdom is proud to support, including through funding secondee roles within the AU Commission.

Mr President, as we discussed in our debate on mobilising the youth last week, inclusive approaches to conflict prevention and resolution are key to a lasting peace. This means supporting women peace builders at the grassroots level and ensuring women’s meaningful participation in peace processes, mediation and inter-communal dialogue. And we welcome efforts to this end, such as the AU’s FEMWISE network, which the United Kingdom supports enthusiastically, and the Women Mediators across the Commonwealth initiative, to which the United Kingdom is contributing $1.5 million. We hope that more member states will offer their support to such initiatives, including through supporting the Global Alliance of Women Mediators, launched recently in the margins of High Level Week by the Secretary-General.

Thank you, Mr President.