HC Deb 20 March 1952 vol 497 cc2540-1
29. Mr. G. Jeger

asked the President of the Board of Trade what trade talks with the Argentine his Department are conducting.

Mr. P. Thorneycroft

rose—

Mr. W. M. F. Vane

On a point of order. We cannot hear a word.

Mr. Speaker

There is a complaint that Members on the back benches cannot hear the right hon. Gentleman. If the right hon. Gentleman speaks into the microphone, he will find his voice will carry better.

Mr. Thorneycroft

Discussions on trade matters are due under the Agreement on Trade and Payments concluded with Argentina on 27th June, 1949, and the protocol to this agreement of 23rd April, 1951. As I informed my hon. Friend the Member for Brighton, Pavilion (Mr. Teeling) on 7th March, they will be conducted by Her Majesty's Ambassador in Buenos Aires.

Mr. Jeger

Does that answer mean that the Board of Trade have handed over negotiations regarding meat, not to private traders, but to Her Majesty's Ambassador, who is connected with the Foreign Office and not with the Board of Trade? Where do the private meat traders of Britain come into this picture?

Mr. Thorneycroft

These negotiations are being conducted in a perfectly normal manner, and I think, if I may say so, better conducted than in the heat of great political controversy.

Mr. Jeger

Is it normal now for trade negotiations to be conducted by the Foreign Office, when pledges were given and promises were made that these matters were to be handed back to the private traders?

Mr. Thorneycroft

We do not decide in advance of these negotiations how the meat is to be bought. It is a perfectly ordinary inter-Governmental negotiation.

Mr. Ralph Assheton

Will my right hon. Friend bear in mind the great importance of these negotiations to the Lancashire cotton trade?

Mr. Jeger

Can we have an answer whether the private meat traders of this country turned down the question of themselves entering into negotiation with Argentina about the import of meat into this country?

Mr. Speaker

That does not seem to be the Question on the paper, which asks what talks the right hon. Gentleman's Department is conducting. That seems a separate question.