HC Deb 12 May 1966 vol 728 c580
28. Mr. Hector Hughes

asked the President of the Board of Trade when the Trade and Navigation Accounts and the Overseas Trade Accounts will be published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office.

The Minister of State, Board of Trade (Mr. Roy Mason)

The Overseas Trade Accounts (which replaced the Trade and Navigation Accounts last year) are being published on the twenty-first working day following the end of the month. From July onward they will be published on the nineteenth working day.

Mr. Hughes

Will the Minister of State take care to ensure that the Accounts deal specifically with the contrast between British and Japanese productivity and overseas trade growth and freight facilities?

Mr. Mason

I am not sure to what extent that point is covered in the Accounts, but I will look at it.

Mr. Barber

When the Accounts are published, will they not show that the average trade deficit for the first four months of this year, which is within the knowledge of the hon. Gentleman, has been considerably worse than the average for the comparable period of the first four months of last year?

Mr. Mason

As the right hon. Gentleman knows, the figures have appeared today, and he will see that, successfully, the trade gap is still being cut.