HC Deb 25 July 1939 vol 350 cc1401-2

10.38 p.m.

Mr. R. S. Hudson (Secretary, Overseas Trade Department)

I beg to move, That the Clearing Office (Rumania) Amendment Order, 1939, dated the thirteenth day of July, nineteen hundred and thirty-nine, a. copy of which was presented to this House on the seventeenth day of July, nineteen hundred and thirty-nine, be approved. This is a Provisional Order to take the place of one dated last September, the contents of which I explained to the House in November. The object of that was to enable the Rumanian exporter of goods to this country to obtain for a proportion of his goods a greater sum in lei than he was able, under the old arrangement, to obtain at the official rate of exchange plus premium. Our hope when we introduced the arrangement was that the Rumanian exporter would be encouraged to send additional goods to this market, with the result that more sterling would accrue to the Clearing Office, and, therefore, be available for clearing off existing trade debts and increasing exports of British goods to Rumania. We have, I think, achieved that object, because in the period September to May, 1937-38, our exports from Rumania amounted to £2,500,000 sterling, whereas for the corresponding period, 1938-39, during which the new agreement has been in force, our imports have been increased to £4,750,000 sterling. The effect has been to accelerate the repayment of outstanding debts and to enable more British goods to be sold. Owing to the continually changing circumstances, certain improvements, we think, can now be made. Those improvements were discussed in outline by Sir Frederick Leith-Ross when he was in Rumania recently negotiating the credit of £5,500,000. A delegation of Rumanian experts has since been for some weeks in London working out the details, and this Order now contains the results. The essence has not been changed, but one or two comparatively minor alterations have been made of a technical character, which, we hope, will further facilitate mutual trade.

Question put, and agreed to.

Resolved, That the Clearing Office (Rumania) Amendment Order, 1939, dated the thirteenth day of July, nineteen hundred and thirty-nine, a copy of which was presented to this House on the seventeenth day of July nineteen hundred and thirty-nine, be approved.