§ 64. Mr. Warbeyasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs why the British representative on the Economic Commission for Europe opposed a Swedish proposal for the appointment of a committee to study intra-European trade in relation to industrial development.
§ Mr. MayhewThe Swedish proposal was an amendment to a recommendation put forward that a committee should be set up under the Economic Commission for Europe to consider problems relating to the expansion of trade between European countries and between Europe and other parts of the world. After a full discussion the recommendation, without the amendment, was unanimously adopted.
The amendment proposed that the new committee should, in addition, cover production problems. The majority view was that the creation of further committees for this purpose would merely entail duplication of the work of existing committees of the Economic Commission for Europe, and was, therefore, unnecessary.
§ Mr. WarbeyIn view of the connection between trade and industrial development plans and the admitted dependence of the success of the Marshall Plan on a substantial increase in East—West trade, will my hon. Friend instruct our representative to adopt a positive attitude towards proposals of this character?
§ Mr. MayhewI agree with the assumption in the supplementary question, but I deny that we have not taken a positive attitude to the proposal. The only reason 1273 we turned this down was that it would be an unnecessary duplication of existing machinery.