§ 28. Sir WILLIAM DAVISONasked the President of the Board of Trade whether, in calculating the value of exports from the United Kingdom to 1612 Russia under the terms of the temporary commercial agreement, the value of re-exports of primary products not manufactured in the United Kingdom and not giving any employment in the United Kingdom is included; and what is the annual value in sterling of such re-exports?
§ Mr. RUNCIMANAs regards the first part of the question, I would refer my hon. Friend to the Schedule to the Agreement, and in particular to paragraph 2 (b) (i) of the Schedule. As regards the second part, detailed particulars of our exports of imported merchandise consigned to the Soviet Union during the years 1928 to 1932 will be found on pages 128–9 of Volume IV of the Annual Statement of the Trade of the United Kingdom, 1932.
§ Sir W. DAVISONIs it not a fact that these re-exports from this country of goods which are not manufactured here are taken into consideration by Russia in arranging the amount to be exported to this country of wood, timber, butter, and other things? It was not the intention of the House that they should be.
§ Mr. RUNCIMANThe bulk of these re-exports consist of tea, raw rubber and non-ferrous metals, which are very important to many parts of the British Empire, and we should be sorry to leave them out of account.