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The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 18 November 2024.

The UK’s Permanent Representative to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and UN in Geneva, Simon Manley, gave a statement during Nigeria’s Trade Policy Review.

Chair, thank you very much and let me also welcome the Permanent Secretary very warmly and his enormous team here. It is great to see you all here. I promise you the weather is normally much better. Let me also express my gratitude to the team from Nigeria and the team from the Secretariat for their respective reports. To you, Chair, for your insightful comments and of course to our Discussant, who was as ever, as you said, elegant, eloquent and clear. We shall miss her greatly. But I still have hopes for lobbying to keep her.

Bilateral Trade

1. Just last week, my Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, was in Nigeria. Indeed, it was his first visit to Africa as Foreign Secretary. Of course it was perfectly timed, deliberately timed, just ahead of this Trade Policy Review.
2. The core mission of our new government is growth. And therefore it was an entirely logical place to go because, as we know, Nigeria is on track to be the world’s fifth largest economy by 2075. Most of us here may no longer be around to see it, but never mind, it is a tremendous prospect. Just over 60% of Nigerians are under the age of 25. Home to the consumers and workers who are going to power 21st-century growth. And David Lammy was clear that trade and investment is what gives people jobs. Both in the UK and in Nigeria. So, this is the lens through which we are approaching this trade policy review today.
3. As part of his visit last week, David Lammy launched consultations on our government’s new approach to Africa. And that consultation will, we hope, guarantee that our relationships across Africa, including of course Nigeria, are based on mutual respect and on partnership.
4. And as an early demonstration of that commitment to partnership, on 4 November, he signed a UK-Nigeria Strategic Partnership. A comprehensive framework for jointly achieving our shared objectives and further strengthening our already flourishing, vibrant bilateral relationship. It builds on our Enhanced Trade and Investment Partnership, signed in February of this year.

Reports Analysis

1. Under this Strategic Partnership we have committed to working together to identify opportunities for mutual economic growth, including through reducing barriers to trade. And this is where this organisation – and today’s discussion – has a crucial role to play.
2. So we are pleased to see from the reports, and from the Permanent Secretary’s introduction, that the Nigerian economy continues to go from strength to strength, despite the various challenges it has faced whether it be Covid-19 or fluctuating commodity prices. Trade as a proportion of GDP up from 27 to 35% over the review period, demonstrating once again the economic benefits that flow from deeper and more open free trade.
3. Increased diversification – so crucial for economic growth – has seen manufacturing and agriculture grow in economic importance, and we would like to congratulate Nigeria on its continued infrastructure investment in areas such as energy, housing and transport.
4. We also welcome, as we gather in Baku, Nigeria’s decreasing reliance on oil and gas exports. Greener growth is a core part of our new Strategic Partnership, and we look forward to continuing to work with Nigeria to generate investment and jobs in the new growth: sustainable manufacturing, sustainable agriculture, and renewable energy.

Business Environment

1. We also welcome Nigeria’s efforts on challenging, but necessary, economic reforms. And the Permanent Secretary said a word at the beginning about that. In particular, we have been pleased to see the work done to improve the monetary policy environment and the removal of fuel subsidies. However, to be honest Permanent Secretary, we would like you to go even further and faster.
2. For example, there are concerns around the impact of state-owned enterprises on the business environment. As the Secretariat noted in its report, as of 2022 around 40 state-owned enterprises were operating in key sectors like energy. These state-owned enterprises, to be honest, often employ market distorting practices and benefit from unfair competition in our view.
3. Other concerns that British businesses investing in Nigeria have raised include examples of harmful subsidies, forced technology transfer, discriminatory enforcement of competition policy and of complex regulatory barriers. And we have indeed picked up on some of those issues and concerns in our Advanced Written Questions.
4. So we would encourage our Nigerian colleagues to address these harmful practices in order to boost investment, boost trade, improve its business environment and ultimately increase Nigerian prosperity.

AfCFTA

1. One agreement that is, in our view, already benefitting the country’s economic and business environment is, as others have mentioned, the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). We congratulate Nigeria on commencing commercially meaningful trade under the Agreement by joining the Guided Trade Initiative on 16 July.
2. We, in the UK, are proud to have supported the Nigeria AfCFTA Coordination Office on reaching this milestone and we are currently supporting the implementation of the Digital Trade Protocol flowing from the Agreement, which is an ambitious and comprehensive framework designed to facilitate digital trade and unlock the potential of the digital economy right across the continent. According to the joint World Bank-WTO Policy Note last year on digital trade in Africa, if African countries were to improve their digital regulatory environment to that of the best on the continent, trade costs could fall by 17% in goods and 25% in business and professional services. So, we look forward to Nigeria implementing that Digital Trade Protocol to the benefit of its businesses, its consumers and its future growth.
3. And it would be remiss of me as one of the co-chairs of the Informal Working Group on Gender not to say how pleased I am to hear about the steps you have taken to promote women’s economic empowerment. As a little practical example, I was delighted to hear the recent story of Madam Chinwe Izenwa. A 73-year-old female entrepreneur and CEO of LeLook, a bags and fashion accessories company, who was the first Nigerian, I understand, to use the AfCFTA’s Guided Trade Initiative. She has even given herself the nickname 0001, as she holds the first Agreement certificate of origin. An excellent example of Nigeria’s action on women’s economic empowerment, delivering real world benefits.

WTO and Multilateral Institutions

1. Closer to home, as others have done, we welcome Nigeria’s proactive and constructive engagement in this organisation. Nigeria is a friend of the multilateral system and a partner to us all.
2. And, of course, right at the heart of that is the significant contribution of this organisation’s most renowned Nigerian – our beloved DG – where let me echo your comments, Chair, about her resourceful and enthusiastic leadership of this organisation, which we look forward to continuing. And we should not forget, indeed, our beloved Ambassador Adamu Mohammed Abdulhamid, who, when not presiding over this distinguished Committee, has done so much right across this organisation to bring us his wisdom and his energy.
3. Outside of this room, we would particularly note Nigeria’s efforts on Dispute Settlement – as the Africa Group’s focal point – and on Fisheries.
4. Nigeria has been a strong ally in plurilateral negotiations, whether on Services Domestic Regulation, Investment Facilitation for Development and e-commerce. While we may not always see eye to eye, Nigeria has, rightly, kept our feet to the fire in ensuring that those plurilateral outcomes are balanced for all Members. Thanks to Nigeria’s input we can be confident that the agreements reached are a fair compromise of ambition, commercial value and inclusivity. We were glad to have reached a stabilised text on e-commerce this summer. We welcome your confirmation, Permanent Secretary, this morning that consultations are ongoing back in Nigeria and we hope to count you as one of the Agreement’s founding parties as we move swiftly forward towards legal incorporation.
5. Thank you, also, for your efforts on the e-commerce moratorium showing why it is so important for your development and for that of countries across the world.

Conclusion

So let me finish by encouraging Nigeria to continue its reform efforts and end by quoting what I believe is an old Nigerian proverb: ‘Only the things for which you have struggled will last.’ So let’s keep struggling. Thank you.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 18 November 2024.

International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Chair Lord Pickles addressed the challenges posed to Holocaust memory by generative AI and other emerging technologies.

I am this year’s Chair of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

We are a global community of governments and experts who focus on promoting, strengthening and advancing Holocaust education, remembrance and research.

Over the past two and a half decades, IHRA has safeguarded sites and challenged distortive narratives. Our experts are the backbone of everything we do. They fearlessly tackle complacency and warped misinformation in equal measure.

Our experts spotted the mushrooming of Holocaust distortion in 2010. They immediately understood how it threatened liberal democracy.

Holocaust denial is not mainstream; few serious people would publicly say the Holocaust is an invention.

Distortion is different. It is often misdiagnosed as a lesser evil.

Distortion takes many forms with two dominating trends: trivial comparisons and minimising numbers and treatment.

Suggesting Global Warning is a Climate Holocaust or Anti-Vaxers persecuted to the same extent as the Jews under Hitler trivialise the suffering of the Holocaust.

The second type masquerades as freedom of speech or earnest enquiry.

I was once attacked on Twitter for saying Treblinka was a death camp. My attacker said I could not be more wrong; it was a transit camp where a few people died due to influenza but nothing more

This questioning has become mainstream with the advent of Artificial Intelligence.

The threats associated with AI in safeguarding the record of the Holocaust are many,  including the potential for manipulation by malicious actors, the introduction of falsehoods or dissemination of biased information, and the gradual erosion of public trust in authentic records.

The latest wave of Antisemitism arrives as a perfect storm when reliable news outlets are at their weakest. Newspaper readership has plummeted, regional and local newspapers have disappeared, and the once powerful nightly news bulletins have diminished in influence.

This year, it is estimated that 52 per cent of the UK’s population relied on news via a social media platform, where there is little moderation or balance

One of the most graphic examples of this false narrative is the use of AI tools to create deepfakes.

As this decade progresses, the number of survivors who witnessed the Holocaust as children will move from contemporary memory into history. In anticipation of this, much effort is being made to secure testimony and protect archives. The very depth of this knowledge might be our Achilles’ heel

You don’t need programming skills to create a deepfake. You can make it for free in less than 30 seconds using many free deepfake applications.

We live in an era in which “seeing is no longer believing”.

The consequences of cheap, widespread fakery are likely to be profound.  It is possible to imagine Holocaust survivor testimony being manipulated. We may see Holocaust survivors with false words put into their mouths; the concentration camps were “not that bad”;  ‘we had plenty of food’; “we played cards on a Thursday with SS” and such like..

How do we meet this challenge.

The first thing we need to understand is AI is here to stay. That governments will always be playing catch up to cheep widely used AI.

The second thing is: we ourselves will use AI to improve our archives, it will find links and connections. We will use it to improve training and teaching

We need to enhance AI literacy and research skills so that users know how to verify AI-produced texts.

Key to all this is the necessity of understanding Large Language Models, and those in the Large Language Model community will need to understand the Holocaust to ensure its accurate representation.

Put simply, Large Language Models are a type of artificial intelligence that uses machine learning algorithms to replicate human language. It uses massive data sets to develop its ability to translate languages, predict text, and generate content.

As Large Language Models become more complex and human-like, they raise more ethical questions about their diversity, energy requirements, ability to make decisions, and use as content creators. This is why Large Language Models are so important in our field.

The big tech companies struggle to understand the issues around the Holocaust the same way we struggle to understand AI.  The intersection of understanding between policy makers, AI experts and Holocaust experts needs to grow.

That is why we will be focusing on Large Language Models during a special AI conference in London as part of the UK IHRA Presidency. The conference will bring together those involved in creating Large Language Models and our experts. It is an opportunity to learn from each other and to expand our work.

More than a decade ago IHRA adopted a working definition of Holocaust denial and distortion.

We made countering Holocaust distortion a pillar of the IHRA strategy.

With the support of voluntary contributions by Germany, Israel and the United States the IHRA established the Global Task Force against Holocaust Distortion.

Now the dangers of Holocaust distortion are addressed in the EU Strategy for Combating Antisemitism and Fostering Jewish Life.

The United Nations passed a resolution condemning Holocaust distortion.

And we are here today, with IHRA Member Country Romania and OSCE ODIHR, who have both been close partners of the IHRA in our joint mission to counter Holocaust distortion.

Romania became one of the first countries to implement the new IHRA–UNESCO capacity building training to counter Holocaust distortion.

Romania successfully localized the campaign #ProtectTheFacts.

ODIHR has been a partner to #ProtectTheFacts since January 2023.

And the UK has just completed capacity building training to counter Holocaust distortion with NGOs and Policy Makers.

It’s clear that our work is far from done.

Over the past few days, like you, I have frequently thought about IHRA’s late Honorary Chairman, Yehuda Bauer. He had a way of taking complex ideas and making them simple. Yehuda once addressed our current dilemma when he said a half-truth is worse than a whole lie.