§ Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.—[Mr. Wills.]
§ 11.28 p.m.
§ Mr. Ronald Russell (Wembley, South)The subject I wish to raise on the Adjournment tonight concerns the contents of one or two Trade Returns, particularly the Trade and Navigation Accounts and the Annual Statement of Trade, for which, I believe, my right hon. Friend the President of the Board of Trade is responsible. I am very grateful to my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary for coming here tonight, armed, as I see, with a very large number of documents, which I did not want to bring in because I did not wish to burden myself too much; but I am grateful to him for producing almost everything I want, and possibly a lot more besides.
This subject is a topical one tonight, particularly as far as the Trade and Navigation Accounts are concerned, because only yesterday the last issue of the 1956 Accounts was published, covering the whole of the year 1956 and the two previous years. Tomorrow, I believe, an Order for printing the 1957 issues of the Trade and Navigation Accounts will be tabled.
Although it is my purpose to suggest a few alterations to next year's issues—and I imagine that now is the right time to do that, if there is any chance of alterations being made—I should like also TO pay tribute to those who produce these documents, particularly the Trade and Navigation Accounts, so accurately in so short a time. It is an achievement to produce this monthly volume, containing in this case particulars of the trade of this country in a great deal of detail for the month of December, 1956, and for the whole of last year, only three weeks after the end of the period in question. At a rough guess, that means dealing with something between 60,000 and 80,000 groups of figures, and getting them accurate. That is no mean feat. There are, however, one or two suggestions which I should like to make for improving them.
In the Trade and Navigation Accounts before the war there used to be a bullion 350 and specie account separate from the rest of the returns. It occupied about 18 pages and contained in considerable detail an account of imports and exports by both volume and value of gold bullion, unrefined and refined, of gold coin of legal tender and not of legal tender, and of silver in the same categories. The totals in each of these groups were shown, and also the complete totals in respect of gold and silver were shown.
That was very useful to anyone who took an interest in trade, but it has not, I think, been included ever since the war. A few years ago my right hon. Friend who is now the Chancellor of the Exchequer did, as a result, I believe, of my writing to him on the subject, include in the January issue every year an annual statement of gold and silver imports and exports, and I believe that silver bullion and silver coil is now included in the normal monthly statement. This does not apply, however, to gold. Although I know that gold is used as something of monetary value, it is in a sense a commodity, and I wonder whether it could not be included in the form adopted before the war so that we could know, for example, how much is imported month by month, and at the end of the year, from, let us say, the Union of South Africa.
The figures giving our trade, both imports and exports, with the Union of South Africa are rather meaningless unless one can include gold. In the tables at the end, for instance, is shown the trade with each individual country, and that with the Union of South Africa always shows a very favourable balance so far as we are concerned. But it is not really anything like so favourable as is shown, because it leaves out gold. I would hope that that could be given consideration.
I know that originally this bullion and specie section occupied as many as 18 pages, and if it cannot be shown month by month, I wonder whether it could be given in full in, say, the December issue to cover the whole year. Any little improvement in that way would, I know, be a great help to people who take an interest in these Accounts.
I should like to come to one or two details now, and particularly I would ask whether there could not be a little more flexibility in showing the break-down for individual countries of both imports and 351 exports. To give one example, in the December, 1955, issue, imports of coal and coke bricquettes from other countries, after giving the figures for France and Belgium, totalled £47 million. The vast majority of that was from the United States. At least, some £36 million was from the United States, but that was not stated because the figures for other foreign countries had not been broken down. That actual figure of imports from the United States has not been published until this issue out yesterday, for December, 1956, which gives the returns for this last year, and also for 1955 in exactly the same layout as for 1956.
Probably, the details are decided upon at the beginning of each year and they are not varied throughout the year. I am wondering whether, when it is revealed that the pattern of imports is not quite what was originally anticipated, an alteration could be made during the course of the year.
I should like to suggest also that the figures for one or two commodities such as rice, for instance, and bauxite, which we all know is the ore of one of the most important metals, namely aluminium, should be broken down, They never are, and have not been for some considerable time. If one wants to see what were the imports from individual countries, one has to wait until the Annual Statement of Trade is published, about which I shall have something to say in a few moments.
Another suggestion which I should like to make, although I know that it would take up more space, is that the totals of imports from Commonwealth and foreign countries should be given. If it is not possible to do so on a very large scale, could it be done by division of the commodities, which, at a rough calculation, would make about 50 times each in both imports and exports? With the adding machines which are, no doubt, available to the Customs and Excise Department, I cannot think that it would mean very much extra work to add up these totals, but it is a much more arduous task for those who are not blessed with machinery of that kind.
Another point I should like to mention is the lack of publication of details of ores of uranium and radium, which are of great interest these days in view 352 of the development of uranium and its use in atomic energy. I know that there are security reasons which are important. If they are still overriding, I would not for one moment press the point, but if there is any doubt I should like to know whether publication could be considered.
It is well known now how rich the Commonwealth is in uranium. Canada is very largely endowed with it, Australia has several extensive deposits, it is being produced in the Union of South Africa from various gold ores and it has been announced that it has been found in New Zealand, India, Nigeria and Rhodesia. Any potential enemy must, therefore, know that we are fairly well equipped with it. In South Africa, at any rate, the exports for 1956 have been published and the size of contracts by certain Canadian undertakings to supply the Canadian Government with uranium is also known. Until 1953, we seem to have published in the Trade and Navigation Accounts the imports and exports of certain uranium ores, but publication ceased at the end of that year. If security is not all-important, I should like to ask whether it could not be renewed, at any rate in a certain amount of detail.
I turn next to something which was produced before the war, but which has not been produced since, and which in those days was of great interest to a number of people. I refer to what were called the Foreign Trade and Commercial Accounts, published quarterly, giving the trade figures of certain foreign and Commonwealth countries for periods of three months, and at the end of the year giving the figures for the whole year. I do not know how much it cost, or would cost now, to produce those accounts. If it is not possible to do it quarterly, I would again like to ask whether an annual volume could not be produced. It would provide figures which it is very difficult for anybody to obtain without going to a great deal of trouble to get the trade returns of individual Commonwealth and foreign countries.
Finally, I come to what is, I think, the magnum opus of the Board of Trade's returns, certainly as far as weight is concerned; that is, the Annual Statement of Trade, produced in four large volumes every year. I shall not make any suggestions for improving that excellent 353 document, which goes into an enormous amount of detail and fills up gaps left unavoidably by the speed with which the Trade and Navigation Accounts are produced.
The question I should like to ask is whether there could be any speed-up in the production of that document. Before the war, the first volume was produced, on an average, within about ten months of the end of the year in question. Since the war, or at any rate since 1950, according to figures which my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer gave in answer to a Question of mine yesterday, the average is about 16 months. Yet there seems to be no more detail inserted. In fact, there is one year less, because the pre-war ones used to cover five years whereas the post-war ones cover only four. I do not make any complaint about that, but I wonder whether it could be speeded up. I do not see why, particularly in view of the mechanical aids fore the war but which are now, it should not be produced a little more quickly.
Those are the points I want to make. This is a very interesting topic, at any rate to people who take an interest in trade, and I should be grateful if my hon. Friend would give consideration to what I have said.
§ 11.41 p.m.
§ The Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade (Mr. F. J. Erroll)My hon. Friend the Member for Wembley, South (Mr. Russell) was good enough to tell me in advance something of what he was going to say tonight, and I will do my best in the short time available to reply to the several interesting points which he has raised. I would agree with him to the full that the whole question of the presentation of our trade statistics is indeed a most interesting subject, and my hon. Friend is right to stress the importance of producing them as quickly as possible.
Perhaps I might begin by explaining the way in which trade returns are obtained. Importers and exporters are required to declare in respect of each consignment of goods its destination and its commodity classification. There are some 170 or so overseas countries or territories specified in the Import and Export Lists, and there are about 2,000 or more 354 commodity classifications. All the separate consignments declared under each heading of the list consigned to us from each country or territory are added together in the Customs Statistical Office each month. This is done by accounting machines, and the resulting tabulation is the main part of the trade return.
As hon. Members on both sides of the House will appreciate, on account of its great detail and volume, no attempt is made to present the whole of this tabulation to the House each month. Instead, a summary is presented in the form of what is called the monthly "Accounts relating to Trade and Navigation of the United Kingdom." These accounts are published on about the 21st of the month following, and are among the quickest trade accounts to be published anywhere in the world. Although these accounts present only a summary of the information available, they comprise over 400 pages per issue, compared with about 300 pages in 1938. I am grateful to my hon. Friend for paying such a warm tribute to the individuals who produce these returns, because they work under considerable pressure, and I know that they will be glad to read in HANSARD the remarks of my hon. Friend.
A complete copy of the full return is published once a year in what is called the "Annual Statement of the Trade of the United Kingdom with Commonwealth Countries and Foreign Countries." This publication, which is issued in four volumes—as my hon. Friend said they are extremely weighty volumes—contains final figures which have been amended to take account of any corrections which traders may report in their transactions after the Trade and Navigation Accounts for December have been closed.
There are thus two separate sources of information: the monthly statement, published within three weeks of the end of the month; and the annual statement, which takes much longer to produce.
I should like to turn now to the specific points which my hon. Friend made. My hon. Friend has said that he would like to see the Gold and Specie Account, which used to appear in pre-war days, restored once more. At present a statement of imports and exports of gold and specie appears in each January issue of 355 the Trade and Navigation Accounts. This relates to the totals for the previous year and the two preceding years. So we have gone a long way already to meeting the point of my hon. Friend. We have not, however, proposed to reintroduce the monthly statements for reasons which I will give in a moment. The statement in the monthly account is rather short, and I would refer my hon. Friend to the Annual Statement which gives much more detail. If he has not studied it, I recommend him to look at pages 793 to 814 of Volume 2 of the Annual Statement which gives all the information for which he asked in very considerable detail indeed.
Of course, if my hon. Friend wishes to see monthly statements in the Trade and Navigation Accounts, I must tell him frankly that I have looked into this matter carefully and do not think that any useful purpose would be served by giving this information at the present time. So far as I am aware, there is no general demand for this information. Physical movements of gold into and out of this country have little relationship to the growth or diminution of our gold and dollar reserves, monthly figures of which are published by the Treasury.
My hon. Friend has suggested that there should be more flexibility in subdividing imports and exports into individual countries. Here we have to strike a balance between listing a large number of countries against which there might be nil or negligible returns, thus needlessly expanding the accounts; and restricting the breakdown in the interests of compactness, so that some quite important countries might only appear under the general heading "Any Other Countries."
Here I would like to explain that in order that the accounts may be published quickly—and we are all agreed that they should be published quickly—the classification and names of countries must be set up in type for a year at a time and cannot be changed more frequently without loss of time in publishing the figures. Indeed, it is necessary to consider no later than September of each year what changes should be made for the set up for the following year.
Thus, as in the case of imports of United States coal, to which my hon. 356 Friend referred, a situation occasionally arises where imports of considerable volume commence only towards the end of the year, by which time it is too late to amend the country classification for the following year. In the case mentioned, the United States has in fact appeared as a separate country in the section dealing with coal imports in the Trade and Navigation Accounts during each month of 1956 and will do so also in 1957.
My hon. Friend referred to rice and bauxite, and I will be very glad to look into those matters and let him know the result of my investigations.
My hon. Friend also said that he would like to see totals for Commonwealth countries as a whole inserted at least in the figures for whole sections of exports and imports. As I have said, the Trade and Navigation Accounts already run to about 400 pages and we should be reluctant to add still further lines of information for two reasons. First of all, the totals for Commonwealth countries can easily be obtained by adding up the figures for individual Commonwealth countries, which are all grouped together in each section. I am sorry to impose that task on my hon. Friend, but I am sure that he will not find it as onerous as perhaps he fears.
Secondly, to save him this difficulty, I should point out that these totals are in fact available, although about one month later, in the Monthly Report on Overseas Trade, which document shows in Table 14 United Kingdom trade by commodity divisions with the Commonwealth. The divisions in this table correspond to the divisions in the Trade and Navigation Accounts. Thus the information is readily available, and my hon. Friend can get hold of it quite easily. For every commodity heading in Volumes 2 and 3 of the Annual Statement—the big, bulky document—totals for Commonwealth countries are included in the manner desired by my hon. Friend, while there is also a special section on Commonwealth countries in Volume 4.
My hon. Friend referred to the uranium and radium imports and asked if details of these atomic metals could be given. I am sorry to have to say that security considerations, the importance of which he 357 appreciates, prevent this from being done at the present time. I appreciate that certain producing countries are making available their figures of exports, but it is quite a different matter for us to give figures of imports.
The final point which my hon. Friend mentioned was the pre-war practice of publishing a volume entitled "Foreign Trade and Commerce Accounts relating to trade and commerce in certain foreign countries." Publication of this document has not been resumed since the war for the very good reason that equally good or possibly better information is now being made available through other sources and agencies. In particular, there are the publications of the United Nations and the O.E.E.C., which give very complete figures of the sort which my hon. Friend desires. Thus, the United Nations publishes monthly "Direction of International Trade," giving for over 50 countries a breakdown of trade according to countries of import and export.
The United Nations also publishes quarterly a volume entitled "Commodity 358 Trade Statistics," giving for 150 commodity groups of the Standard International Trade Classification a breakdown by countries of provenance and destination. In addition, the O.E.E.C. Statistical Bulletins, Series IV, give for each O.E.E.C. country, and for Canada and the United States, an analysis of trade by commodity and country combined—a more complex analysis than in the United Nations publications and much fuller than anything in Foreign Trade Accounts "before the war.
I hope from what I have said hon. Members will agree that in the Board of Trade we are trying to maintain a high standard in providing up-to-date, comprehensive and accurate information regarding our trade with other countries. We intend to do our best to maintain this high standard, and we are grateful to my hon. Friend for drawing our attention to the points which he has raised.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Adjourned accordingly at seven minutes to Twelve o'clock.