§ 14. Mr. Leatherasked the President of the Board of Trade whether he is yet in a position to announce the steps taken to protect Commonwealth bananas from the results of Brazilian currency manipulations.
§ Mr. P. ThorneycroftI have nothing to add to the Answer which I gave to my hon. Friend on 12th June.
§ Mr. LeatherWhile I fully appreciate the complications, may I ask my right hon. Friend whether he will bear in mind that, unless he takes action before the Jamaican harvest season, immense damage will be done? The bananas will rot, and they will rapidly stink, and so will our reputation.
§ Mr. ThorneycroftThis scarcely affects West Indian bananas, for they are imported all the year round, and, consequently, the matter of the harvest season there scarcely arises. Imports of Brazilian bananas are in marginal quantities, and there is no evidence at the moment that they are increasing.
§ Mr. BottomleyWas not an arrangement made with the Brazilian Government whereby no further restrictions of this kind would be imposed in return for concessions granted by us, and did not the House approve an Order on that basis? The Brazilians really are not playing the game.
§ Mr. ThorneycroftThe Brazilian share of the United Kingdom market is small, and has been falling. Unless I can see some evidence that there really is, as a result of these operations, some rise in the Brazilian share, I do not think there is anything about which we need be concerned.
§ Mr. LeatherSurely my right hon. Friend will agree that the Brazilians have carried out this currency manipulation simply because their share has fallen, and they want it to rise again at the expense of our own territories?
§ Mr. ThorneycroftThis is a complicated matter which I shall be happy to discuss with my hon. Friend, but I scarcely think that is right. Brazilian banana exports to this country are such a small proportion of Brazil's banana exports generally that I cannot think that would have been the chief preoccupation of the Brazilians.