§ 47. Mr. Boydenasked the President of the Board of Trade what are the practical difficulties which deter him from negotiating an agreement with Poland to enable British coal to be imported into Scandinavia on reasonable terms.
§ Mr. ErrollThe practical difficulties are that any agreement of the kind the hon. Member suggests would be ineffectual unless it covered oil as well as coal and unless all important suppliers, including the United States and the Soviet Union, as well as Poland and ourselves, became parties to it.
§ Mr. BoydenSurely, the President of the Board of Trade can start negotiations to try to get agreement amongst these countries? One of the problems is a shortage of foreign currency in Poland, and surely we can make a move in that direction?
§ Mr. ErrollAs a matter of Government commercial policy, we do not favour inter-Governmental agreements of this kind, even if they were practicable.