HC Deb 17 May 1962 vol 659 cc1516-7
14. Mr. Jay

asked the President of the Board of Trade what compensating advantages the United Kingdom has offered to Canada, Australia and New Zealand to offset the reduction of preferences on exports of manufacturing goods by these countries to the United Kingdom, as proposed by the Government to the European Economic Community in the negotiations in Brussels.

Sir K. Joseph

Particular aspects of the Brussels negotiations cannot be considered in isolation. It will be for the meeting of Commonwealth Prime Ministers in September to make their assessment of the general balance.

Mr. Jay

Is not this a rather extraordinary method of negotiation, by which the United Kingdom offers to the Six to give away or abandon arrangements which are advantageous not so much to us as to other Commonwealth countries? Were these other Commonwealth countries consulted, and are the Government offering them no countervailing concrete advantage in return?

Sir K. Joseph

I must repeat that the Commonwealth countries will, no doubt, judge the outcome as a whole. As my right hon. Friend the Lord Privy Seal said yesterday, … full consultation was carried out …"—[OFFICIAL REPORT, 16th May, 1962; Vol. 659, c. 1343.]

Mr. Clark Hutchison

What mandate have the Government to alter these preference arrangements? We heard nothing about it in our election manifesto.

Sir K. Joseph

In the case of Australia and New Zealand, our preference arrangements are part of agreements which are at six months' notice. Our preference arrangements with Canada also are at six months' notice under an exchange of letters. At this stage, in the middle of negotiations, when proposals have only just been put forward and have not even been fully considered, I repeat that the outcome as a whole must be judged, not individual strands of it.

Mr. Jay

Does this mean that the Government can abandon one after another these arrangements, which are valuable to other Commonwealth countries, without their approval, and just go on saying that the Commonwealth countries concerned must judge the thing as a whole at a later date? Is that really what the Government are doing?

Sir K. Joseph

The Government have made plain all the time that the whole outcome of the negotiations will fall to be considered by the Government and at the Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference. This is only one strand of it.