32. Mr. H. Wilsonasked the President of the Board of Trade whether agreement has yet been reached with the other Western countries concerned about the export of ships to Eastern Europe; and what further discussions are taking place on this question.
§ Mr. P. ThorneycroftThe present control on the export of ships to Eastern Europe is operated in agreement with the other countries concerned: discussions about these controls are going ahead.
Mr. WilsonIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that on Thursday it will be exactly a year ago that the Prime Minister called for greater trade and greater exports to Eastern Europe, and that it took the right hon. Gentleman four or five months to announce the first series of changes in the restrictions? He said at that time that he could not reach agreement on ships. When does he expect to be able to reach agreement with the other countries about this question of ships, when he has already taken 12 months?
§ Mr. ThorneycroftThe right hon. Gentleman is quite right in pointing out the wide extensions in East-West trade achieved as a result of the efforts of Her Majesty's Government. The situation to date about ships is that certain ships are subject to an embargo and certain others are sold under a procedure whereby a contract is entered into and notification given afterwards. There has been some discussion as to whether restrictions should be tightened up or not, but on the whole I have seen no proposals which I think 1057 would be appropriate from the strategic point of view, or helpful to the Government. These discussions are, however, still going ahead in Paris, and we should await their results.